[Minnewaska]

I would have been at the front of the line that said these would never be seen on cruising boats. Not so sure now.

 

[Phitod]

Although I do find it very interesting, would that take some of the fun out of traditional sailing?

 

[OPossumTX]

Although I do find it very interesting, would that take some of the fun out of traditional sailing?

I would think it would take a whole lot of trouble out of sailing. Sailing and fun are, after all, the point.

But, but, but, how would you reef the thing?

Have FUN!
O'

 

[Minnewaska]

The design seems to accordion the wing up the mast, which remains inside the soft wing. It still look like sailcloth on the outside of two bows. I would think it could be reefed by not pulling it up all the way. Same as a traditional sail. I'm sure this prototype hasn't worked that all out.

The accordion style was very creative. The wings we've been accustom to seeing on the racing cats don't come down at all. That would never fly in the cruising world.

 

[svHyLyte]

Interesting. And reefing would be just like that of reefing a Junk rig. But hoisting that puppy would be a real workout no doubt. There had better be a backup to a captive electric reel winch for the halyard.

 

[PaulinVictoria]

The first thing I thought when I saw that was "wouldn't a junk rig offer 95% of these advantages at probably 15% of the cost?"

 

[tommays]

I for one was very impressed with the way they were able able to make a TRUE WING with the articulating FLAP like the AC cats with far less complexity

On the other hand were going back to a freestanding carbon or other such material spar and more than likely there will be some need for head sails

 

[killarney_sailor]

I think the difference between this rig and a junk is that you can put up a lot of pretty efficient sail area with this rig. I agree that this thing would be a beast hoist. One of the problems that the early Freedoms had was that the sail wrapped around the mast and it was extremely hard to get up. Later Freedoms and Nonsuches just went with a track on the mast and that helped a lot.

Many years ago, a Nonsuch 30 was fitted with an enormous rig including a wing mast made by the Gudgeon brothers. If i remember correctly the mast was 3 or 4 feet wind and pivoted on its base. They then hoisted a sail up the back of the wing. The boat won a Mackinac race until they retroactively changed the handicap (it was somewhere in the fine print that they could do this rather than making everyone else's boat obsolete and competitive.