Beach Cat Sailing

We had a great day on Lake Washington with friends. Charlie brought his waterproof camera so we actually got some photographic evidence.  Nice steady winds all afternoon. Even got the bigger kids to do some of the sailing.

It is this sort of thing that inspires me to carry on with my project. Beach cats are fun but there are some specific things I want to do that are difficult on a beach cat (read sailing while comfortably seated with a cooler of frosty beverages).

Just Wondering A Very Specific Wonder

If a boat has a rotating mast, then is it true that the cleats for the halyard, downhaul and reefing lines need to be cleated off on the mast (or some appendage to it that rotates with the mast).

If these lines were cleated on the deck then they would alternately lower, loosen, or tighten the sail, or resist the rotation of the boom.

I'm not sure I'm as sold as I once thought on a rotating mast.

First Sail of 2016

The weather finally broke down and gave us a decent day. Also with our nephew, international man of action Rodrigo Horna visiting, we just had to get out on the water.  We left him on tiller duty for the duration and he handled the boat (a C&C 27) just fine.

This outbreak of nice weather will not last long so we had to make the most of it.

Latest Rig Thinking (Now New And Improved!)

I am planning on putting backing plates and stainless T-nuts in the deck for all the deck fittings. To do that I need to know what all the deck fittings will be and where they will be located.  To do that I really need to have my rig approach solidified.

I joined a sailing club so I could sail while not owning a boat. Turned out I needed to join ASA (American Sailing Association) in order to join the club. Turns out that the ASA membership comes with a subscription to Sailing magazine. Unsurprisingly many vendors of sailing stuff advertise in this magazine.  While leafing through this magazine I came across this.

Company link here: Boom Kicker

The problem I was having is that trying to line up the forward end of the boom with the as designed angle meant long spars to hold the boom (from the bearing) that were looking heavy and unwieldy.  But if I have a way to hold the boom up from the bearing then I could get rid of the long spars and the topping lifts.

This also changes the nature of the rig. Even though it will have a wishbone it will in effect be a split conventional boom. That said, counting control lines I think it should be as simple to use as a real wishbone rig.  I'm counting 4 running lines, the vang, the outhaul, furling line and the mainsheet.  I'm no wishbone rig expert but I think it uses a snotter, a halyard, an outhaul, and a mainsheet (perhaps the outhaul could be considered standing rigging). So here is the concept.

 By using the Boom Kicker I can angle the boom up instead of down. So you still avoid hitting yourself in the face with the boom.  Things might get a bit crowded at the bearing so I will have to be careful of that.  In operation I would use the vang to adjust boom position to get the sail to share the tension between its upper and lower parts as needed. The outhaul is used to adjust overall sail tension and release the sail to be furled.

Next step is a little bit tough. I let my 3-D modeling subscription lapse (years ago) and now it will be expensive to re-up. So either I try to design the bearing in 2-D (I've never designed stuff in 2-D) or pay up to get back to what I'm used to using. Either way I'll build a bearing prototype before I commit the boat.

New Thoughts on Rig Approach

I've been spending a lot of time thinking about the rig for the boat and have an idea that was sparked by an approach that Bernd came up with for his new tri-maran (See posts here: https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/k-designs/conversations/messages/5740 )  The approach Bernd shows gets me most of what I want (reefing using a rotating mast, wishbone boom, luff pocketed sails). Its limitation is that you can't throw the boom all the way out because eventually the inside of the wishbone will hit the mast.  So what if the anchor for the wishbone also rotated about the mast axis? Here are some sketches. This one shows a plan-form view. The idea is for the anchor point for the wishbone to transfer loads from the boom rigidly to the deck through the bearing which is shown in the second sketch.

I'm now trying to think of drawbacks, and convince myself I could build it all myself at reasonable cost.  If I can see it coming together I will start to run some sizing numbers to further assess its viability.

  

Latest Thinking on Rigs

Circular thinking is nothing new when it comes to considering how to rig this boat. Here is the thing, I have been looking for a solution that meets my many criteria, is cool, and won't break the bank. What I came up with is carbon masts with a sail track and wishbone booms, or carbon masts with a cantilevered arched composite boom. Either one of which might include a rotating mast.  Neither one of these exactly screams affordability.

Have you ever found yourself watching a game or a race or some event in which you are not really interested, but you are watching anyway, And as you watch you find yourself for some unknown reason favoring one team?

It's time to admit that I really want to use CF mast with sail track and wishbone booms.  While I'm confessing I should further admit that I think wishbone booms are cool. With that said, I'm not sure its worth the weight to have rotating masts (even though they are also cool) since the wishbone limits its usefulness to aerodynamics only.  This may be a place where its warranted to bother Bernd. But I'm not going to show up empty handed, I'll have a bearing concept in hand with some weight estimates.

Before I consider this a finalized  decision I'm going to try to hitch a ride on a nonsuch or other wishbone rigged sailboat. So I can experience how it is to sail in real-life, before committing to it for my own boat.

Still Thinking About Rigs

Still pondering. Here are my latest, perhaps not best thoughts.

My first thought is to recall that I am building a light weight small catamaran.  And it should have a lightweight easily handled rig to go with it.  Call that the requirement the boat has for the rig.

So with light weight and ease of handling as my primary concerns I can evaluate rig option based on these criteria. Right? For the following I figured any boom meant moderate weight.

Here is a go:

Soft-wing sail: Heavy, Easy to handle.
     Lots of hardware aloft.

Junk-rig: Moderate weight, Easy to handle
     Many battens and associated tackle adds to weight.

Luff Pocket Boomless: Light, Easy to handle
     Serious concerns about downwind work.

Luff Pocket with Boom: Moderate weight, Easy to handle
     See example below.

Sail track with Wishbone: Moderate:weight, Easy to handle
     This is the default, performance wise should be nothing to complain about.($$$$)

Poking around the internet I found this rig combination from Schionning Designs of Australia. I'm showing this one first because you can really see the shape of the boom.

In this picture you can see a luff pocket version carrying a reef on both sides.

In other pictures its pretty obvious that the main is carried loose footed. It also looks like the mast is fixed and the boom is on a gooseneck.  I'm going to do some more research to see if I can figure out if that is true. If my boom can go high enough not to hit me in the head then this may be a possibility. You get the aero efficiency of a luff pocketed sail, downwind you have a boom to work with, and you avoid sail-tracks. Note the absence of a vang. I wonder if the boom is rigidly attached (vertically)? 

Spending Sleep Time Thinking About Rig Options.......again

I figured that since I spend a considerable portion of my life thinking about this it warranted its own post.

Here is the problem. The Duo 660 is set up for unstayed, rotating, carbon masts. But I want to be able to throw out the sail for downwind sailing, so I need a boom.
    Puget sound wind is often out of the North. Puget sound is mostly a North-South body of water, so
    usually you are beating to the wind or on a run.

The conventional answer is to use wishbone booms.
     Then I lose most of the benefit of rotating masts (can't be used to furl or reef).
     Also need to install sail track: risky or expensive on carbon masts
     This is my fall back position if nothing better comes along

Freedom yachts used rigs that used sails that wrap around the masts (read no sail tracks) but still had wishbone booms. I think they must have used topping lifts but cant quite figure out how they rigged the snotter, or why the wishbone wouldn't just bang into the mast. Not to mention reefing.

I hate (I should stay dislike) the Bermuda rig. The presence of the boom vang and topping lifts give away the issue here. I suppose its feature is that you have controls (of various levels of effectiveness) to influence all areas of sail shape. The bug is that you have to use all those controls. Besides I don't think it a good option for an unstayed masts.

I thought about trying to design a 3-D wishbone that could freely rotate about the base of the mast but curve up and around the sail to engage the sail clew like a conventional wishbone. But this entails some complex and likely heavy bearing hardware. And I'm not sure I could ever trim this right in a breeze since the downforce on the leech would likely be limited to the weight of the boom (which I would be trying to keep light). A regular wishbone accomplishes this by pushing off the mast.

My latest thought is to use softwing sails, perhaps junk rigged?.  This is sexy, but not sure if it would be too heavy. And I still lose the rotating masts, but wouldn't have to deal with sail tracks. Of course there is expense to consider as well. The idea would be that no boom would be required because of the battens. But then how to reef?

You can see why this leads to sleeplessness.

Sailing is Fun, But is Heeling Fun?

My theory on why some people love their monohulls is that speed is fun, and if you have grown up on monohulls speed is associated with heeling.  The only catamaran sailing I've done has been on beach cats.  A few times I've had nice windy days where I got to drop off the kids and get some actual speed (between them all their weight adds up), I didn't miss heeling one bit.  Since I'm on the subject of heeling, here is a picture of me and the kids heeling over a J-70 on a breezy afternoon.

Video From Vimeo

So the K designs website had this Vimeo video posted (thanks leevogtman). I love everything about this. It's flirting with danger but obviously he was prepared, he is very close to massive natural formations and forces but manages to eek out a joyful life experience, he is not alone but there is no crowd. For me this distills what I love about sailing. Even the music strikes the right tone.

I edited out the video since the quality on my site suffered, here is the link instead. Something like this should be enjoyed with proper resolution.   https://vimeo.com/133833096

The teachers union is on strike here in Seattle (I blame the school district). So I've been trying to do all I can to keep the kids busy. Which means no time spend building my catamaran. I'll should be able to squeeze in a few hours this week, I hope.

Re-Charging the Batteries

The weather did clear just enough yesterday to get in a good sail on puget sound. I joined a sailing club here in Seattle and so can check out a variety of boats (all monohulls).  Yesterday we had the Ericson 26.  It was a nicely windy day in the morning (my guess around 10 kts sustained), but the wind died in the afternoon so we had to motor home. It was nice to be out on the water again and remember why I'm building this boat. There is just nothing like sailing to make you feel so liberatingly small.