It's a bit rough!

[goanywhere]

Hello all, it's been awhile since I posted here. I've been busy with all sorts of things associated with a particular daughter's wedding coming up. But today I decided to make use of some free time to head out into the gulf off Seacliff, Adelaide, South Oz to see what the Sabalo+sail+outrigger rig was made of. The sea was obligingly rough with a sou-westerly 25-30 kt breeze whipping up the swell.

Apart from getting soaked and taking on lots of water (i'm going to have to attend to some hatch seals over winter!) at no time did I feel unsafe or prone to capsizing. All in all I'm very happy with the Sabalo's seagoing abilities as a triak rig.

I calculated the theoretical top hull speed for the Sabalo at around 10 km/h. but I clocked 14 km/h (7.6 kts) downwind. I can't wait to see how she performs with a better sail.

I took this video, but unfortunately I had the camera at the wrong angle, so I hope you don't fall off your chair watching it

[john the pom]

Good to hear more from you Trevor. Is that your earlier "wing" sail you used previously on your Plastic yak? Or is it the one you were working on subsequently? If you remember a gonfission telling you to get your finger out and give us some updates on Akff that might have been me The outriggers look the goods but do you think you might have gotten away with smaller ones?
Cheers John.

[goanywhere]

G'day John. Actually it's Steve, but I won't hold that against you

The sail is the original wing, I haven't gotten around to building the next one. I'm having trouble getting the time, but also deciding on a design. Lots of ideas, but hard to pick one and get building. I am thinking of incorporating a self-inflating luff pocket into a sprit sail design to get the best of both worlds. The sprit sail (eg the Flat Earth design) has some great features, but I also like the wing, which increases efficiency by about 40%.

The outriggers are about ideal. Any bigger and they would be difficult to transport and fit up on the beach, and any smaller and they might not provide enough additional stability.

I did post some detailed instructions on building the wing sail on AKFF, but I haven't been too busy on the site lately.