G'day cruisers,
I'm an amateur sailboat
designer at heart, and came up with what I think is a new way of
rigging a sailboat that I think offers some practical advantages. I did some reasearch into old
rigging designs and discovered that this particular sail has already been invented and is called a fisherman. But is only really used on ketch-rig vessels and staysail scooners.
But I was considering using this type of sail on a
single masted sloop-rig. Essentially, I take a gaff mainsheet and cut it diagonally from the tip of the gaff down to a point at the base, of the
mast. Removing the boom and using the gaff as the only supporting structure. This significantly cuts out
power, but leaves sail area high up which is useful when "skunkholing" in the shadow of land. It also leaves the aft
deck totaly free of obstruction, say if you wanted to use the space and getting somewhere fast wasn't an issue. If you wanted to make more sail, you can simply hoist a triangular sheet from the gaff point - replacing the cut segment from the
mainsail, albeit with a soft bottom.
Can any experienced sailors see a flaw in this design?