after a scary fun sail 2 weeks ago on hard clay , ankle biter has had a bit of a revamp,
a strap under the mast step to stop a crack that was starting( this yacht get pushed hard)

Handgrips have been added to the sides of the seat so that the pilot can hang on with one hand in a hard turn and have the other free to work the sheets.
I shall name them "little farks"

finally I whipped up sail no 33.
thi ssail is rather tall at 4600mm along the luffand has had a Dyson mast tip added to give the 2piece Killwell mast enough height.



The chord of this sail is only 1100mm at its widest, so its right on 4msail area.
I suspect I will have to recut the top to control it, but I'll test it first

I recently saw on "One HD" channel the Korean sailboard championships and I was fascinated to see at speed the top of sails on the boards were flapping like flags. The only time that top section was filled was for about 2 seconds after tacks or jybes.

landyacht said...
I shall name them "little farks"

20 years ago I called them "Handles"

kiwi307 said...

landyacht said...

The chord of this sail is only 1100mm at its widest, so its right on 4msail area.
I suspect I will have to recut the top to control it, but I'll test it first

Paul, FWIW I was talking with the Americas cup guys a week or so back, and they say that the squarer the top, the stiffer the mast top has to be to work. In fact they can't get enough carbon on the top bit to make it work totally. They are now "lamp-post stiff" to quote them.

I actually recut the top out of the sail without sailing it. its now pointy'er to control the top. the big square tops need a combination of stiff mast AND perfect positioning of the sock when its sewn on. on some of the loftier sails the lff curve actually goes into reverse about 500mm from the peak by a few mm to put extra bending pressure on the mast. The first time I did this I unpicked and resewed a sail 5 times to get it right, poor thing looked like borer damage.
The 2 piece kilwell mast has no taper in the lower section and quite a sudden taper in the top, which gives a stiffer mast. Its just a glass mast, but carbon would be alot stiffer.the Dyson top was added to get the height needed top let me see under.