ANAMNESIS --------------------------------------------- When Mato's Wayfarer came into my life I was over sixty. Clumsy on each passage underneath it's boom, started to combine something to make the boat sailing without it. For more comfort... For a weekend family trip, or for a higher fun to effort ratio... A year later made the drawing for a sail.... EXPERIENCE --------------------------------------------- • I think that wind conditions on our coast, support such a, 'boomless', sailing style, since either we have no wind at all, or have the wind so strong that sailing refinements are soon forgotten. On the sailing dinghy of the Wayfarer size, more space in the cockpit, and reduction of machinery, could bring more safety for many weekend family trips... (The log of our recent trip goes with my findings. We would have had more comfort without the boom, on all our downwind runs, suffering small losses only, on our windward legs.) To support it further; in our sailing conditions, (which is strong wind and many islands), the windward leg is generally not considered as a recovery leg. In gale force wind you should always run downwind. STATUS --------------------------------------------- • We tried our [small boomless] sail in several setups... It is not replacing the full Wayfarer Main Sail, but it was performing reasonably well, even in moderate winds. Compared to the reefed Main, it was not much behind it, and because of the cockpit comfort increase, I started thinking that this report should be written... Applied over the boom, with the Wayfarer Main folded, resulted in less instead of more comfort. This application we have abandoned. The boomless use, arose the problem of sheeting, which, in our tests, was solved using the circular Gennaker sheet. Connecting the clew of such a sail, to the fixed point on the deck, is not the best for it's trim, but it was sufficiently good for majority of situations. The simplicity of it's use is another advantage, that should be accepted and developed further. To do this, I would make a bigger sail, and I should make several changes on the hull and mast of wayfarer. CONVERSIONS --------------------------------------------- • The hull. A pair of 'saddles', (like used for shrouds) are to be fixed to the gunwales, 20 centimeters behind the existing. To anchor a new pair of shrouds, which I shall call Lowers, or Rear Shrouds. Forestay should be moved out, to get clear rotation of the furling Genoa. The tack fixation, for an even smaller Jib is to be prepared under the foredeck, in the middle of the rear side of the triangular opening. To tack the small Jib, (2.6-2.8 sq.m), behind the furled Genoa... • The Mast. New mast is requested. Interventions I list, from the top to the heel. The top is almost the same. One halyard, for the main sail, an two identical topping lifts. No boom, but two topping lifts! Topping lifts are used for the awning, and to hoist, (or better to say submerge) fenders, when the boat is capsized. So both topping lifts are reported via tackles, to the chain plates, so that the force can be applied against the gunwale, to 'send' fenders down to the top of the mast... The 'entrance' of the spinnaker halyard, and the forestay fixation points are left as they are. The 'entrance' of the Jib/Genoa halyard is lowered, for several centimeters, to get a clear winding of the sail. New entrance, for the second Jib halyard is placed, 10 centimeters bellow the first one. Shrouds and cross trees remain, as they are, and a new pair of shrouds, is fixed 20 centimeters below the originals. (Tensile strain redistribution to the doubled number of shrouds, could help under heavier forces, either coming from canvas pulling the boat downwind, or by it's speed being reduced, on the end of a glide). Bellow the cross trees things are much simpler than before. The sail feeding cutoff is machined lower than today, there is no gooseneck, and of course no vang. One saddle is used to tack the new main sail, and to regulate it's height on the mast. The mast heel should remain almost the same... Zagreb June 2008. Nenad Ilijić |