Anonymous wrote:
Hello,
I built a wing sail prototype based off the Aerojunk this summer. Then built a landyacht to test the rig. Unfortunately, it was hard to get the right conditions and location to properly test the sails. I was troubleshooting the land yacht, mostly.
I live in Galati, Romania, right next to the Danube river. There are few sailing boats here.
If you have a small dinghy, then we can test the rig together.
Thank you,
Devo
Your innovation of wrapping the luff of the main around the mast on an aerojunk type rig deserves comment. I look forward to hearing more on how this performs over time. Not taking advantage of the rounded mast as a leading edge to improve lift and efficiency seems wasteful. I've read accounts of how it can be difficult to get wet sail down or reefed when it's wrapped around the mast. I haven't pursued this personally, and obviously have no experience of it, but you can find anything on the internet. The Wharram Builders webring has at least one discussion of this based on the Wharram Wingsail that I was able to find quickly while writing this:
Wingsail Rigs- A nightmare in the Rain?
I have my own ideas on utilizing the mast with a version of the Aerojunk, but it doesn't involve a wrap, but rather a gap on either side of a bare mast allowing airflow around the mast to either inflate the space that would be inside if there were a wrap, or pass over the outside of the wing portion. I won't try to describe it in detail because I haven't modeled it yet. Just at the daydream stage ;-)
Fun stuff!..... If nobody responds, there are a number of stitch and glue dinghy designs out there that are very cheap to build. I like Richard Woods designs particularly. His smallest one called the Crayfish is a pram design, and can be sailed. It takes only 2 1/2 sheets of 4 mm plywood to construct weighs 20kg 1.3M wide by 2.44m long. Plans are cheap at only 5GBP. He has plans ranging from this up to some quite large "blue water" cats including a couple of simple trimaran designs using beach cat hulls for outriggers.... Speaking of which, I'd want an outrigger on your landyacht... Looks like it could capsize pretty easily ;-) I'm pretty partial to Richard's designs. Simple, rugged, and sound.
Woods Crayfish