735769 wrote: > > After twenty - five years of competitive sailing I was kind of happy not to > worry about a sail but people seem to enjoy it so... Thoughtful post John. Sorry for the slow reply, been busy with work. I am a burned out sail racer but still a self confessed sailing chauvinist that will rig and sail almost anything that will float. > > I whipped up a spinnaker rig for a canoeist who did not want to portage a > mast. When he wanted to sail he cut down a sapling and fastened the halyard > block to the top. He then raised his sail when he needed it and threw the > sapling in the bush at the next portage. Like all simple things some people > could not resist carbon fiber masts etc. Most liked the simplicity of the > spinnaker over other rigs and learned to live with off wind sailing. > > For more extended cruising in kayaks and canoes my customer felt it would > not hurt to be able to sail closer to the wind since he traveled on lakes > and through lots of islands where the wind changes direction often an > rapidly making putting up and taking down the sail a bit of a pain. Being > cheap we decided not to buy a new sail and rig. We installed a"clew" in the > middle of the spinnaker with a tack line to the mast. Downwind he freed the > tack line to use the sail as a spinnaker. Reaching he pulled in the tack > line and folded the sail in on itself like a crude Ljungstrom rig. Easy Rider offers a small spinnaker that can be folded for reaching. It mounts on a fishing pole mast and is quite compact to stow and light weight. Some of those that have mentioned wanting to sail without a serious gear commitment might enjoy it. > > He claimed he could sail a bit into the wind even without lee boards and > this allowed him to sail between islands. He used it without a rudder but if > if one wnated to do a lot more sailing a rudder (and possibly leeboards) > would make sense with this kind of rig. > > The Ljungstrom rig allows reduction of sail area by half when reaching or > sailing into the wind. One can also rig a roller furling system that allows > you to get the sail completely out of the way quickly. You still have a > mast to fool with and I don't think the Ljungstrom rig has as much > efficiency as some rigs but if sailing isn't the primary objective it seems > to do the job cheaply and simply enough. > > I wish I could tell the curious where to find out more about the Ljungstrom > rig but I can't. I think I read about it in British yachting magazine some > years back. If I recall correctly some one had developed a more complex > system with twin booms or something. Maybe Mark will have some thoughts on > the pros and cons of the rig. I have given the Ljungstrom some thought and have built a kayak adaptation that is similar. Back in the 80's I mostly sailed a single without any outriggers and the hairiest times were in heavy winds, dead downwind. I wanted a rig for myself for those conditions and was inspired by two different rigs normally used on larger sailboats. One was the Ljungstrom for reasons mentioned above and the other was a sail configuration common on offshore cruising sailboats. The second set up is called running twins and consisted of twin headsails set wing and wing and with their clews helt out with whisker poles. The characteristic that the two rigs had in common were the dihedral shape of the sail presented to the wind. The dihedral is very stable and this is a desirable feature on a narrow unballasted boat. By borrowing the strong features of each rig and disgarding the negative features, I felt I could come up with a sail appropriate for kayaks in strong winds or light. The good features of the Ljungstrom rig aside from the dihedral shape was that it can be set to good effect on an unstayed mast for simplicity and that the sail had a relatively low center of effort. The height of the center of effort also stays stable when depowered in contrast to the spinnaker which gets higher off the water when the sail is released. The downside is that the Ljungstrom does not have any booms for the two sails. The boomless configuration provides for less stability and more difficult control. In addition, without a wide sheeting base such as on a sailing multihull, the sheeting angle makes it very difficult for the user to maintain anywhere near the full projected area of the sail while running downwind without using both hands or the paddle, both techniques that I personally try to avoid. The other negative of the Ljungstrom is reefing or furling by rolling around the mast. While I like sails that furl around the mast in certain applications, I feel that it can be a problem in a kayak. When the wind increases you would naturally roll in some of the sail to reduce the projected area. When the wind becomes too strong to sail the sail is rolled around the fully extended mast. It is then difficult to safely remove the mast and stow it on a kayak from the seated position, expecially in the rough windy conditions that may require it. This is less a problem in a canoe. By borrowing the twin booms from the running twins, it goes a long way toward taming the Ljungstrom. By combining the two sheet with a bridle into one sheet, control is improved and only requires one hand. When one wants to depower the sail it is simple to let the sheet out. As the sheet is eased, the projected area of the sail is reduced with good control and precision. Once the booms are rotated fully forward the sail is in a tame "off" position and requires no hand control while it flogs gently between the booms. If you want to then remove the rig, it can be dropped with a halyard in seconds and lashed to the deck or stowed below. A multisection mast can them be removed safely and stowed. The brief conclusion is that by combining features of two proven ocean sailing rigs, one can have a powerful, controlable downwind rig suitable for a kayak. By folding the same sail around the mast, some reaching ability is possible but the half size sail is small for any but stronger winds. > > I know of a fellow locally who has used a kite and he reports similar > experiences to Matt's. It looked like fun to me when I saw it done but more > trouble than it was worth. Maybe he just didn't have the hang of it. I feel the same as Matt about my experiences with parafoils. The conditions in which they have been effective for me are too limited even for their small size. There are some people that really like them but I do not know what is different about their kites compared to the less successfull ones. There is a small but growing group of sailors using traction kites on kayaks. They are not really versatile enough for kayak touring, but may offer astounding performance in some conditions. With a lateral resistance fin such as a leeboard, these kites also have some windward sailing ability. Reliable sources claim speeds of 15 knots sailing a double kayak. This is thrilling performance sitting that close to the water. Stay tuned. Mark > > Cheers, > > John Winters > Redwing Designs > Web site address, http://home.ican.net/~735769 *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - All postings copyright the author and not to be reproduced outside PaddleWise without author's permission Submissions: paddlewise_at_lists.intelenet.net Subscriptions: paddlewise-request_at_lists.intelenet.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
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