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Performance

This performance category has a lot of quite specific material as well as general design thoughts.

As well as general Design Consideration there are two major sections on Rigs and on Foils (Rudders, Centreboards, Leeboards and Hydrofoils)

There are also articles on general issues that you can find by simply browsing the below.

Articles on Rigs and Rig Setups
including specific how to set up traditional rigs such as Lug for maximum Performance.

All running rigging systems for Viola 14 Lug rig - complete guide

Articles on Foils and Foil Making
(Rudders, Centreboards, Leeboards and Hydrofoils) – includes the making of performance enhancing foils in the home workshop.

Wooden boat building epoxy method Using a squeegee to apply the first coat of epoxy to the fiberglass on the centreboard. Works for rudders and hulls in boatbuilding and repair
Using a squeegee to apply the first coat of epoxy to the fiberglass on the centreboard.

 

 

Book – “A lighter ton” – New Zealand racing yacht design in the 1970s

In the late 70s as a sailing teenager I drew boats on every available paper surface.

A new book “a lighter ton” describes the exciting development of racing yachts to create newer, lighter, faster and cheaper and FUNNER boats.

Many of the developments were from New Zealand designers such as Bruce Farr, Paul Whiting and Laurie Davidson. A new book by Richard Blakey covers this exciting experimental period in yacht design

Boat designs influenced by rules? History shows us canting keel maxis are stupid

This is an article about how bias in thinking produces weird results in terms of boat designs.

I compare a silly boat design trend of 100 years ago with modern canting keel maxi yachts.

Personally I don’t think they should be allowed to use engines to run the keels and the various systems – if they do then they should be disqualified from the event results. The conventional human powered boats should be listed as the winners of events.

Goat Island Skiff going fast downwind with heavy load - Texas 200

Strong wind downwind with unstayed Masts, Cat Ketches and Cat Yawls, more safety and efficiency

John Goodman and I sailed the immaculate Goat Island Skiff he built from my plan in the Texas 200.

The boat showed itself to be one of the faster in the fleet despite loading up such a short boat with food, water and camping gear for six days with little outside support.

We played with sailing the boat by the lee – a method used by racing boats to gain both speed and control.

I document the method here including a video showing how the angle of heel can be controlled using the mainsheet.

Goat Island Skiff in Victoria – Dete Hasse and his boys (and the value of reefing

Dete Hasse and his family built a Goat Island Skiff in Geelong, Victoria a while ago. He has just written to me about his experiences trying to sail on Port Phillip Bay and more happily on the recently refilled (the drought is over!) Lake Eppalock.

Also he makes some good comments about reefing and how it changes an overpowered boat into a much more rriendly beast in stronger winds.

The Canon – Tools for thinking about sailing and boat design – Books and Articles

One of the most important things as a designer or sailor is to keep an open mind, but also to be able to analyze things in light of real experience and prior knowledge. These are online and paper resources that force thinking in different ways.

This article, after a bit of a spiel, goes on to give some great resources that “opened my eyes” at different times in my life.

They focus on areas of structural design, sailing, sail aerodynamics and touch on a bit more.

Rules of thumb for boat and yacht design – are they legitimate?

There are lots of tips for building and designing boats on the net.

“Rules of thumb” are often quoted to help with the calculation of how much sail or how much keel or centreboard area or how big a mast is allowed to be and many other areas. Can a boat be stretched or shrunk or lengthened?

But how correct are they? Are they the best guide?

lug sails at very competitive prices - reallysimplesails.com

WIKI setup and tuning Lug Rigs, Spar bends and weights, Sail controls and More

The conservative viewpoint is that traditional rigs are not very efficient. However allied to efficient hulls and set up correctly, lug and sprit rigs can be very efficient indeed – not too much slower than “modern” rigs, particularly when the same lessons are applied to trad sails and way cheaper.

This is a WIKI drawn from the group on the Storerboats forum discussions on setting up lug and sprit rigs for best performance building on the information in my webpage.

Setting up for performance – Balance Lug – Goat Island Skiff

John Goodman who recently spent 5 days semi racing a Goat Island Skiff in the Texas200 event got back to me with some observations and even some pictures of aspects of the boat and the sailing.

I have responded with suggestions to make some further improvements. Between John and me there are some useful tips about setting up a boat for more speed.

However the standard setup of the Goat is fine for most – it is still pretty quick in standard form.

There is advice for both lug and sprit traditional rigs here.

New article out on PDRacers on Duckworks.

A nice little article by Jackie Monies who is turning into the writer in residence for the PDRacers.

It posits the idea that because of its cheapness, ease of building and the creativity in the group that it qualifies as the “All American Boat”.

Actually I think it is the perfect boat for places that are water rich and cash poor. Anyone can afford to go sailing in these cool little sailing boats. The options of material and design solutions allow the boats to be built of local material just about anywhere. Very cheaply.