Westward said..
Regarding the point of "keeping it going" I am finding that it doesn't go to windward terrible well. Any ideas as to what this might be? I thought that it might be having to large of a sail (making me back off to avoid tipping over)
The 'go' of windward ability is balancing act of sail form and power requirements where off angle forces provide diminishing returns.
The key players are aspect ratio, draft depth and location, area, and resistance to heeling moment.
One has to assess the present system to see if usable power is the limiting factor given the high known drags of beach sailing, or if the sail configuration limits how close the yacht will sail regardless of available power (wind speed).
I have limited experience in carts but tons of the aquatic variety.
In use of my recent build I did gather a few observations of windward limits in my case for beach sailing.
At my venue I found that power limits came into play far sooner than any configuration problems as the limit on how well I could make way to windward.
A 10^0 berm on one tack plus coming through the wind in soft sand made this a very power hungry proposition.
I was using a deep draft sail with low aspect ratio and did quite well for this type of use.
The high aspect sail I tried would point higher but lacked sufficient power to drive forward well given the draggy surface.
This sail was a re-cut but didn't have the draft as new to function well on sand.
For other venues with low rolling resistance I imagine that the high aspect ratio full roach platform will rule the day as the sail configuration will be the most important variable.
