Exploring a Simple way to draw Shelf Foot Cambered Panels

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  • 28 Jun 2022 23:15
    Reply # 12831974 on 12819046
    Anonymous member (Administrator)

    The simplest way to produce camber in a flat sail (without hinges):

    Take a look at that tan sail on Malena.
    As shown in Newsletter 26, I forced some camber into my original flat sail by making two 10cm darts (tucks, folds or whatever) at the luff and leech of all the lower panels. The two upper panels got the same treatment, but only at their leech. This was the Mk1.a version of my cambered-panel sails. I never measured its real camber, but it was less than today’s 8%. In theory, this should result in a badly hooked leech, but I guess the stretch from luff to leech evened out the curve so it wasn’t that bad. This sail was definitely better than the flat sail without hinges, but not as powerful as when using hinges (10% camber).

    Then look at the two photos of Ingeborg’s sail with barrel-cut camber (8%):

    The photo of the full sail, taken last summer, shows nice and even curves.
    The other, taken this spring, shows the sail with one reef in a stiff breeze. As can be seen, the lazyjacks on the leeside distorts the camber quite a bit, but the boat carries on and the telltales are flying happily. No real hooked leech, in my view.

    To me, this is the name of the game. Make the sail with some camber in it. Then sheet the sail so that you have an attached airflow from bottom to top, on its leeside. That’s why I never stop nagging about telltales and a sheeting system with sufficient anti-twist in it.

    Arne

    PS:
    If I were to straighten out the aft part of the panels even more, I guess I would not add battens or a multilayer tabling. I would rather cut the leech of each panel with a little hollow in it. However, I feel no reason for doing it. What I easily can do is to tape a couple of horizontal tapes onto one panel back there to better see the shape of the sail.

     


    Last modified: 29 Jun 2022 12:31 | Anonymous member (Administrator)
  • 28 Jun 2022 04:17
    Reply # 12831013 on 12819046

    I think the reason that no one sail construction method has one out over the years is that no one method is clearly superior in every way.  You just have to choose which things you want in your sails and what you are willing to give up.  I've started sewing my four-piece practice panels this evening and there's no mystery in the appeal of a single large panel cut-out and done.  Barrel cut offers that.

    I had to order more cloth today in order to cover what I'll need for tabling, if I'd made an Arne-style webbing-roped sail, I'd probably have needed less cloth (rough estimate, I'll give more precise numbers when I finish).  I think a huge number of the folks in the JRA fit into the "best use" for a Johanna type sail with a webbing bolt-rope and they'll save some money and time if they build that.  There's lots of pictures of them without and hooked leach and smiling owners.  Granted, if I went offshore with one of Arne's sails I'd still add some tabling, but even that is a personal choice.

    I think the only thing that is certain David is that if you were to build another sail, it would be something different than what you've done before and sharing it would only improve the JRA,.


  • 28 Jun 2022 04:06
    Reply # 12831011 on 12819046
    Anonymous member (Administrator)

    Arne wrote: ... break down and confess; your first JR sail [shelf foot] panels were built over a plywood mould to get them right…

    Yes, I confess …. Well, no it wasn’t quite like that.

    I confess I knew nothing about canvas, or sewing machines, and was afraid to pick up the hot knife. So, I made a mock-up of a jib panel using some bits of old plywood I had, just to convince myself what one of these critters would look like in reality. It’s a good thing I did, because I made a mistake with the camber and had to make a second one. (Also, little did I know that a shelf foot panel in soft cloth actually doesn’t look like the rigid model, but anyway it gave me the confidence to proceed). Then I looked at the basting tape, and wondered how to apply it when I only have one pair of hands. Suddenly a brainwave – I thought, seeing I have the plywood model, why not use it as a tailer’s dummy and lay the cloth over it. Suddenly I realised I wouldn’t even need to draw the shapes out on the cloth. Just drape the cloth over, and cut around the “chine” in situ with a hot knife, with total confidence that everything must fit. It made the whole job so easy, and quick, and gave so much confidence in the finished product, that I decided to do the mains the same way, and made a mains dummy as well.


    There’s only a day’s work in lofting and making a plywood dummy, and it made sense for my Amiina Mk ll sail (which has all identical panels except for the top triangle).

    I think, for a small sail with identical panels, I'd do it again. Otherwise, if a confidence-builder is needed, just make a first one to scale, out of cardboard.

    David, I seriously considered broad seam for the mains. Maybe the only type of junk sail panel that seriously calls for shelf foot is the jibs of a SJR. I wouldn’t use any other cut but shelf foot for the jibs. But for anything else, I don’t know enough to have an opinion. I just didn’t have the confidence, after reading the text books, that I could do it right with broad seam, or just how much camber I would actually get. It’s a bit of a mystery to me. (Is “arcane” the right word? I don’t have time left to gain the necessary experience). I made the top triangle (low camber and unsplit) using, not exactly broad seam but some long “patched darts”  which have a similar effect on shape, plus a bit of rounding – and it did work out OK, so perhaps a broad seam construction is not so difficult to design. Now that I have learned that a single curved seam does not produce a "chine" (as it would do if we used plywood or tin plate) but rather it gives the whole cloth panel a fair curve – I might look at broad seam again with a little bit better understanding. If cloth is laid parallel with the leech, as it probably ought to be, then there are going to be seams there anyway, so I guess there is further economy in just tapering the seams. The thing is … how much? A beginner can’t visualise the final result. A spreadsheet table of numbers just doesn't give me a visual picture.

    So, unlike Arne, I regard shelf foot as an alternative method not unsuitable for beginners, because you can make a cardboard or plywood model first, which gives some understanding, something visual to start with, and thus confidence to proceed. Its faux-intuitive, if that’s a word – after making one out of cardboard, you can then convince (delude) yourself that you understand how a shelf foot sail takes up its shape, and then pick up the hot knife with confidence.

    (That said, I have no doubt the easiest and quickest method by far is to be found in Arne's Files. nothing I have seen yet surpasses Arne's Files as a confidence-builder, to get one up and out of the arm chair. I suspect Annie's book and Arne's Files are up there with PJR as required reading for all students of the rig).

    The shelf foot method gives you a bit more control over where the maximum camber will be, (compared with other methods?) if that matters much, but apart from that, the panel bellies out no different from any other cambered panel as far as I can see. I’ll probably use the method again because I am confident in it now, and I like the simple geometry (or should I say trigonometry) which is all that is required to get a “predictable” result - but not because I now think the finished product is a superior cut. And it has to be admitted, there is a bit more work in it, and a little more cloth wasted.

    (The other reason, for me, is because my rig of choice is SJR, and I can’t see the point of SJR unless the jibs are as large and aerodynamically “correct” as you can possibly make them, with the maximum camber exactly where you want it, in which case shelf foot is a no-brainer. For the jibs. That's for another thread).

    Apart from that I am inclined to agree with Arne that whatever works, in practice, is going to be better than good enough for most people, and looking for that elusive extra 2% of performance is probably a fool’s errand - for most people, that is. Hats off to the few who never cease to strive for perfection, nothing would progress without them. Apart from that, it probably just comes down to whatever has the most intuitive appeal. The most important thing is - don't just think about it - do it!

    Durability is probably the only other thing that matters in the end – although even then, for most people who only mess about, that’s probably not such a big deal either. I would imagine shelf foot is as durable as any other cut, depending on the details that apply to all sails?

    Except... I think it is difficult to work out what is the best thing to do on the ends of the lenses, of a shelf foot sail, to make that area of the sail with the batten ends, strong – there is a little bit too much going on there. Darren might have worked out the best solution there, where heavy duty is called for, if there is not too much cloth to punch through. We'll see. I used layers of tabling - and added gussets of short lengths of rather light webbing across the leech ends of the half-lenses, but did not sew the panels together. That's not going to last. I should have sewn the panels together or (better) used full double lenses, and I think then maybe a short strip of light webbing across the double lense might be enough on a small sail. - but then its a hard spot.  A bolt rope or a full length of webbing right down the leech seems a bit agricultural to me, but I don't know, it seems to work on Arne's sails. I dunno.

    The biggest problem in SJR is across the luff ends of the lenses, you want to keep a nice shape there. The shape won't matter so much with the luff of a contiguous sail, but its still difficult because, unlike at the leech end,  the sail is trying to build up camber quite quickly there. It will be interesting to see how that detail works out in Darren's sail. I don’t think Paul has not yet quite reached perfection at the luff ends of the lenses, and perhaps that part of Pango’s sail could be improved.

    Leech. Beautiful.


    Luff. Would it help if the lense pairs spanned a a wide centre strip? 

    So there is fertile ground for further discussion on the structural details of a shelf foot sail.


    I make these comments from the position of being a learner who has perhaps just reached level 101.



    Last modified: 29 Jun 2022 02:36 | Anonymous member (Administrator)
  • 27 Jun 2022 19:45
    Reply # 12830521 on 12819046

    Well, if I was going to make any more sails (which I’m not), I’d stick with my preferred method of vertical cloths in each panel and broad seam and/or tucks in the forward half. Much better looking and better sailmaking practice than barrel cut; easier, quicker and more economical of materials than shelves  

    Just sayin’. 

  • 27 Jun 2022 17:14
    Reply # 12830255 on 12819720
    Anonymous member (Administrator)
     It meant that going to windward in very light airs, she was fantastic... but easily overpowered in stronger winds.

    Bonjour James

    I don't realy understand the point. Under my understanding, with a junkrig to be overpowered is just a normal way of life. When overpowered just reduce a panel or two.

    For me, it is in the pointy world that the overpowerness is an issue because it is expensive in time and energy to reduce the sail area... but with a good racing crew.

    Eric

  • 27 Jun 2022 14:01
    Reply # 12830037 on 12819046

    Even if I'm successful, I don't think there's likely to be an exodus from making barrel-cut sails.  I don't think there's much more that can be done to lower the barrier to making sails than what you have done Arne.  I'll do the best to document what I do, because I think I owe that back to the JRA given how I've benefited from those before who've shared their ideas.  However, what I do isn't going to be comparable to Arne's instructions.  Hopefully, it will add another option for those inclined to do such things. 

    I'm genuinely grateful to everyone who's taken the time to comment not just on my build or posts, but on every other one that's available here on the JRA to learn from. 


  • 27 Jun 2022 10:53
    Reply # 12829923 on 12819046
    Anonymous member (Administrator)

    Graeme

    I surely salute Paul for making such fine and good sails.

    However, as for amateurs   -  there are amateurs and there are amateurs. You and Darren are robust amateur craftsmen who don’t shy away from working with any material;  plywood, concrete , steel or canvas, so you don’t really need any advice from me.

    I, on the other hand am aiming for the first-timers with little or no experience with sewing, and who are not the bravest go-ahead type of people. I want to encourage them to make their very first sail, by trying to make the first step up from the armchair as low as I can.
    And... break down and confess; your first JR sail panels were built over a plywood mould to get them right.

    Change of theme,
    over to that photo from Sep 2013, showing me measuring the actual camber of Frøken Sørensen’s sail. That photo reveals a couple more details than the max camber. When I designed that sail, I wanted 8% camber, but I decided to use my chain calculator to get 9%. Then, when rigging the sail, the camber was flattened a little by hauling the sail just a little taut along the battens. That worked well. I got my 8% camber and I got rid of just about all wrinkles along the battens, and  - not least  -  the vertical curve became pretty trapeze-like.

    This photo also reveals that odd detail; the slack bit in the space between the fore and the aft batten pockets. It doesn’t move or flutter, and there are no wrinkles or distortion of the camber around it, but it still looks a bit odd. I have decided to forget about it. It’s the same on Ingeborg’s sail and probably all barrel-cut sails made with batten pockets. If this detail makes one unbearably eye-sore, then I guess one must add broadseams, tucks  -  or step up to the shelf-foot method.

    Luckily, I make my sails for sailing, not for selling...

    Cheers,
    Arne


    Last modified: 27 Jun 2022 11:51 | Anonymous member (Administrator)
  • 27 Jun 2022 02:07
    Reply # 12829692 on 12819046
    Anonymous member (Administrator)

    Arne: "...that [shelf foot] method has proven to be great when executed by Tuchwerkstatt in Germany or by Paul Thompson, and possibly other pros as well. My scepticism is against promoting the shelf-foot method for DIY beginners to JR sailmaking.

    I can't let that go past.

    I am not qualified to promote anything, and I'm not doing it here. But on the subject of being a beginner: I am one, don't have to rely on memory, so I can say this much, with confidence:

    Anyone can understand and successfully make a shelf foot sail.

    Arne’s great contribution, apart from being a pioneer in the evolution of the modern cambered sail, is in the area of encouraging beginners like me to have a go, developing, proving and providing practical pathways which make that seem possible. I can't say "thank you" enough for that.

    If I were building a contiguous sail for coastal cruising I think I would like to follow one of Arne's pathways. And I can understand that there would be near enough to the same return for less effort. That's good.

    It would seem a pity then, to discourage anyone from making a shelf foot sail if the idea appeals. I am sure that is not what Arne intends. There might be a little more work in shelf foot, but I can't see where it is any more difficult. There are enough successfully amateur built shelf-foot sails already on the water to demonstrate that. A curve is a curve, and a seam is a seam. 

    And building camber into the sail is only part of the task anyway.

    The reason Paul’s sails are so good is not because there is any mystique about shelf foot, it is simply that his workmanship and his use of excellent details stand out, as would be expected of a professional and a craftsman. We should all aspire to that and try to learn from it, whether using shelf foot, broad-seam, barrel cut or even macrame style.

    I am sure Arne is as interested and as pleased as all of us, in following Darren's future progress as he works his way through and documents the making of sails for Leeway, sparing no effort.



    Darren:  "...a lower shelf angle lets you put the effective camber across a greater portion of the panel height..." 

    That is true in the tin plate model. In the case of soft cloth reality, it remains to be seen. I think you might get a surprise. I found, somewhat to my surprise, that the shelf panels tend to merge with the centre panel and once fully inflated, they take up together a continuous curve (bulge) in the vertical section. Maybe the 30 degree shelf will be a bit better in this respect (distributing the camber vertically) than 45 - I look forward to learning if it does.

    At present, I doubt if a 30 degree shelf foot sail will spread camber across the height of the panel any better than this barrel cut sail...

    We'll see.

    Last modified: 27 Jun 2022 10:14 | Anonymous member (Administrator)
  • 26 Jun 2022 23:18
    Reply # 12829576 on 12829572
    Anonymous member (Administrator)
    Graeme wrote:

    Hi Arne. I don’t recall anywhere saying that I thought shelf foot sails are “better” than barrel cut.


    Nonono, Graeme, I don’t accuse you for saying that.

    As for my attitude to the shelf-foot method; that method has proven to be great when executed by Tuchwerkstatt in Germany or by Paul Thompson, and possibly other pros as well. My scepticism is against promoting the shelf-foot method for DIY beginners to JR sailmaking.

    There is another factor: The sail has to be rigged correctly and handled correctly to look good. Not even the best sail will look good if incorrectly rigged and trimmed  -  and I dare say that even the best junksails will from time to time look untidy.

    Arne

    PS:
    I ‘grew up’ with the slide-rule on high school and the first year of technical school (1973). It had a little advantage  -  it could only deal with about 2½  to 3 digits resolution. That is all you can handle when making sails anyway...

    PPS:
    I admit that I often gives the dimensions in my sails to the nearest millimetre, but I expect that people are happy enough if they can get as accurate as one centimetre (cm  = 10mm).


    Last modified: 26 Jun 2022 23:56 | Anonymous member (Administrator)
  • 26 Jun 2022 22:56
    Reply # 12829572 on 12819046
    Anonymous member (Administrator)

    Hi Arne. I don’t recall anywhere saying that I thought shelf foot sails are “better” than barrel cut.

    This is just a conversation about how to do the lofting, and how the lofted shapes translate into the final result - and to express a little joy in the process.

    Arne is quite right to pounce on the use of high precision scale factors “1.4142 instead of the 1.1547” – those “accurate” figures are ridiculous, of course, when it comes to cutting the cloth.  That was only to make a point in the discussion with Darren. However, when doing calculations some of us use computers these days, not slide rules or long multiplication, so it’s just as easy and it is actually better practice not to round decimal figures down until the time comes to actually pick up the scissors.

    I have to admit, it was a revelation to discover how much the shelf foot panel bulged into a vertically curved camber, virtually the same shape as Arne portrayed so well at the bottom of his most recent diagram. The result I got from shelf foot was very similar in vertical section to the result Arne is getting from his barrel cut sails. Closer in fact, I would say, to the left-hand of Arne’s pair of examples. In that respect, Darren might be in for a surprise.

    I think the barrel cut sails in Arne’s photographs look magnificent and I could be easily persuaded to use Arne’s methods and the barrel cut if I were building a contiguous sail for coastal cruising.

    I can also appreciate Darren’s perfectionist approach to what looks like a heavy-duty, long-distance explorer type of vessel. I wouldn’t say Darren is “over egging the pudding”.

    I think a better metaphor is “going the extra mile”.

    ………………………

    [  However, for the record, and to change the subject slightly, I would venture to suggest that for the type of sail I decided to make, shelf foot is worth the extra effort, at least when making the jibs.

    Arne’s reasoning that a well-formed camber shape is “will be thoroughly crushed on that other tack. does not apply to Split Junk Rig.

    I am less certain about whether it is worth it for the mains of a SJR, but I like the look of the result I got, as the mains, too, set near identically and near perfectly on both tacks. I just found it aesthetically pleasing to take the advantage of being able to build camber further forward along the chord and to know that I had done the very best I could. It was a first time effort and I was enjoying to explore the geometry of a sail, and learning to use a sewing machine.  ]



    PS So far it looks like "one nill" in favour of adopting Darren's preference for reckoning shelf angle with respect to the sail's orthogonal plane. Looks like I might have to change what was evidently just a "mind set".

    Last modified: 26 Jun 2022 23:04 | Anonymous member (Administrator)
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