I’ve just translated for Andy Trewin a very detailed set of German instructions on how to make a small (but bigger than Footy sized) swing rig for a thing called a BASIC Jolle .
It is quite an impressive little pamphlet (20 well-illustrated pages). Obviously if it is to go any further than Andy for private use, we need to do a deal with the German club that owns the copyright. If they want money for this, is anyone interested? If so, how much are they prepared to pay? Is anyone prepared to act as treasurer?
Note that it is entirely about construction of the rig, although similar documents on making it sail well may exist from the same source.
If we go ahead with this, we will run the thing under the eye of Roger Stollery as the inventor of the swing rig (I am pretty sure that the very first one was fitted to a proto-Footy) to make sure it meets with his approval.
Thats the one. The text is useful - there are uite lot of alternatives, reasons for doing things and so on. I’ll wind up my best active German and see if I can get anything out of them.
Here in the US, copyright issues often are relaxed when used for “educational purposes”. Once posted it becomes public domain and would only require a footnote identifying copyright info, especially if no cost is charged. Once you start charging for documents, a whole new set of rules come into play. “Fair Use” and “Educational” are key words I would rely on.
I wrote a new set of US Rules for the F-48 Class, and while I retain the copyright, one of the rules in the document is that it can be distributed at no charge for “educational purpose and use”. More folks should think about those things when posting documents or intellectual property works.
If this goes ahead in physical book form rather than as a download, Curved Air Press would be pleased to take on the production and marketing. Possibly this would be an opportunity for CAP to move into CD publication.
If my memory serves me aright, I think you will find that swing rigs as we know them today were first seen on a R10-r run by a member of the then Medway MYC in the early 1970s. Roger’s version, again as I recall, appeared on an RM shortly after. Something essentially similar was used by Frank Behenna on free sailing models before 1914.
Having investigated a little further, it appears that the material is in the public omain for non-commercial use. They helpfully only tell you this in German. Roger Stollery (the inventor of the swing rig) is prepared to add some additional hints, tips and comments which will also be in the public domain. The problem is then simply one of finding somewhere on the web to put it that is reasonably visible. This should be reasonably easy.