Hi all, I live in Marseille, south of France. Traditional boats here are the double-ended, shallow-draft, lateen rigged type. Think of the felucca, tartane, "pointu", etc. The lateen rig is well adapted to the Med, as is the hull type. But tacking is a problem as you either have to do with a bad tack, locally known as "mauvaise main" ("bad hand"), or change the spar's side ; this is a time-consuming, quite difficult or even dangerous operation as the spar, the "antenne" is often a heavy wooden one. Reefing is done by lowering the sail and lacing it to the antenne before hauling it again.

But the mast is is a position similar to that of a JR, it's unstayed or uses the haulyard as a stay, and the sheet is usually attached to the rudder, or nearby. So  a conversion wouldn't be too difficult.

I'm aware this type of hull isn't good at upwind tacks, but maybe this can be improved, and I can definitely picture myself sailing (donwind) to the beautiful islands on a Med Lorcha !

So I'd love to read about your experiences and thoughts about this !