Quote:
Originally Posted by monte
yes it does have a wind gen DF
They're spinnaker poles DD |
Umm... no, they're 'deck spreaders'
Yves Parlier first came up with the idea in 1996, I think. His rig nevertheless broke during the race, and he pulled in to Stewart Island (a
remote but inhabited location in the deep south of NZ) and repaired it. He reprocessed and re-rigged a smashed 87 foot wingmast (hence a lot bigger fore and aft than usual), cutting away the damaged part and splicing the remainder to come up with a 56 foot
mast, which he re-erected on his own, at
anchor in a windy part of the world, on a stripped out, lightweight
racer without outside assistance or
equipment, and rejoined and finished the race.
Needless to say the guy's a legend, despite being shy and self-effacing.
The idea is that they carry the chainplates well
outboard of the
hull, widening the staying base (as on a multihull) so that the stays can run straight to the hounds of a rotating
mast, without needing any on-mast spreaders.
A fringe benefit is the ability to sheet the reaching
sails to the end of the outriggers
The idea of the rotating mast (which can have an aerofoil section, like a wing) is to clean up the airflow coming onto the
mainsail, for a useful improvement in
lift and reduction in drag.
Such rigs can be a handful when sailing "under bare pole" in extreme conditions, though.... especially the wing masts with
deck spreaders, which (due to the stays not providing any intermediate fore and aft support to prevent mast bend) have to be deep fore and aft.
(Some rigs, pioneered I think by Ecover) use swinging spreaders on the wing mast, which gets around this problem and keeps the stick nice and stiff going upwind, but has to be superbly well designed and detailed if it is not to be unreliable.
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