The height of the “storm rig” (call it what you will) for a Footy is fixed to 305mm above the box. Presumably one can sit the boat in the box such that the boom barely clears the edge of the box.
My question – whatall constitutes the “rig and sail set”? My armchair footy (which as yet exists only in my imagination and in a few sketches) is a little gaff-rigged cat boat. Would I have to replace the mast with a shorter one in order to fly my storm rig, or could I simply replace the sail and spar set, mounting them on the same (now overly tall) mast?
Hi Rick,
My understanding is that a “rig” includes mast, booms and sails, and the mast would be measured in the storm rig. Also, it is usually pretty easy to remove a rig as a unit including the mast, rather than to have to disconnect the sails and booms in order to leave the mast standing. the most common way to do this is on a Footy is to build aluminum tube(s) in the boat (sticking through the deck) to receive the end of the mast. Many Footys use un-stayed rigs without shrouds, usually the mainsheet is enough to retain the mast & rig in it’s tube. This way, there are no shrouds to cause extra drag in the water when the boat is heeled over.
Regards,
Bill Nielsen
Oakland Park (Ft. Lauderdale), FL USA