20170113

Today I talked with Frank van Zoest about the rig for Hatseflats. Frank is a sailmaker with much experience in traditional rigs. He built a Wadden Yawl around a stretched Shellback design and the sail of a Ness Yawl. My plan was to use an existing sail design made by Frank and design the boat around it. My criteria were:

Raising the mast and setting sail should take no more than 10 minutes.
Spars will be made of wood and should fit inside the boat.
Upwind performance is very important
Given the displacement and aft rocker, planing is not expected
Given a sailing displacement of around 300kg I should set the first reef at around Bft4. This means I should be able to flatten the sail using the halyard and downhaul.
I should set the second reef at around Bft5
The third reef should take me to a shelter when there is too much wind for sailing.

We discussed the various options: sprit rig, standing lug or balanced lug. Frank suggested a balanced lug because it is much more docile than the sprit sail and standing lug. Frank proposed to use a Tirrik sail which is 9.15m2.

Rather smaller than the 10m2 I had in mind, but easier to control, especially when sailing singlehanded. I ordered the sail, with crosscut panels and made of AltAir 5.4 oz cloth, which looks like Egyption cotton.

20170113_MY-OWN-LUGGER-9.JPG Franks Wadden Yawl with sail from Ness Yawl

20170113_TIRRIK.JPG A Tirrik designed by Iain Oughtred