well the delta rig had it sea trials today…found some soft water on the potomac, with 4-6" chop. the boat sailed well a bit heavy on the weather helm but giving the conditions I think it would be manageable. in smoother water. 132sqinches of sail with a 7ounce keel and I think it could handle much more. and even more with the 8ounce keel
two things. I’m going to make a foam “tail cone” to deal with the immersed transom (canoe stern) which would make the boat a diagonal boat. build a larger rig. we get predominately light winds, so going from 22" to maybe 26" inches may be a good thing…
I was very impressed with how it did and no submarining on any point of sail…
claudio, thank you for the idea…I think with a second rig it may be the boat of choice for my trip to the footy nats in a few weeks…
Islander…the boat has a predominantly bow up attitude the deck line is not parallel with the waterline. so while the keel does look like its at an awkward angle it really isnt. the transom sits about 1/2 submerged while sailing
I just found this forum, and this thread has been facinating. I was wondering if anyone had any updates in regard to how this set up has performed for them? Did this setup prove to be worth the effort? Was there too much fiddling to make it easy to use?
on the footy side, it did and does work, at least on the local level… with a skinny 12" boat the rig works quite well. going down wind the sail act a but like a kite and helps keep the bow from burrying in a puff.
if it a bit of a pain to change sails to a smaller jib… but only having to get one sail tuned is much less frustrating…
Claudio, that video clip is great. I love the way the water seems glassy, yet to boat moves well, and the telltale is flapping something fierce. I applaude your efforts and work.
Marc, great work as well with your Footy! I’m thinking of building a Footy as well, so your version has me very interested. I had the thought of adding additional attachment points along the mast for shorter/smaller rigs. It would take some work to keep the rig balanced properly, but if using a boom, the pivot point could be moved forward or aft on the boom, adjusting the CE to match the boat. Once set, it should not change much and the rig should be fairly simple to switch around. I’m not sure if what I’m thinking of makes sense to anyone else, or if it would work. I have yet to build anything to test it on. But soon. I’m finalizing the design of the boat for now. I have started with the flatfoot design, but I’ve been tweaking the design to get the shape I have in my mind. But this is info for another post.
Back to the topic at hand, my thoughts for a delta rig/mast-aft rig. would be to have two or three different sizes of sail. The largest would attach to the mast right at the top, and the others attaching at intermediate points. I would run backstays to a bumpkin, one from each attachment point on the mast. I would like to use the same pivot point as in Claudio’s set-up, but each rig will have the pivot point at a different point along the boom. Initial design will be for the largest sail, the smaller sails will then become less and less balanced, but the smaller sails will also be easier in theory for the mainsheet servo to handle because they are smaller (at least that is my thought). The advantage of using a pivot point as Claudio does, is that if for some reason, I really don’t like the way it handles, or if I can’t get it to work for me, I should be able to drop in a McRig without too much trouble. Maybe not though… what do you think?
It is usually necessary to move the center of effort forward when wind increasing to keep the helm balanced, then perhaps only necessary to make a shorter boom aft as the sail area shrinks.
th e only problem with your rig would be keeping the luff tight, but still allolwing the twist in the leach. it would be one heck of balancing act… as you tension the luff the upper club and lower club will want to not be parallel so you need to add tension in the toping lift.
The oldest form of delta rig …Traditional dhow racing will be a special event incorporated into the last Louis Vuitton Trophy to be held in Dubai, Nov 12-27-2010
Hi Eric ,
generally the race is from point A to point B and no tack is needed.
At the return they just adjust the set-up changing board to go back at point A.
It is a very spectacular race !! nice to watch when diffused on TV.
Cheers
ClaudioD
Thanks Claudio! I was wracking my brain trying to see how to swap the rig around in a hurry and just could not see a way to do it in under several minutes.
not to awaken an old topic. but. Do you feel that a drum is the only way to go with a delta, and the narrow confines of the rg65…would a triple purchase be too much friction on light air days…
Mine had its maiden today. a complete disaster. I broke the mast seat setting it up but as there was only a very light breeze, I carried on anyway. She did a fairly god impression of a weather vane when in irons and sailed backwards. Hoping for better luck next time
Hi Marc,
I’m not sure to have understood what you do means with " triple purchase" , but friction in the sheeting, if any, would cause more effects on smaller surfaces like a traditional jib.
Cheers
Claudio
Marc
I tried a triple purchase on a bench mock-up and it didn’t work worth a damn. Too much friction. I don’t think it would even work with heavy wind. Ball bearing blocks would help.
Don
