A Look at SolGato’s A-frame masted Hybrid Lateen/CrabClaw Sail Rig

Подписаться 1,1 тыс.

Просмотров 1,1 тыс.

50% 1

Since a few people have asked about it, and since I had to rig up SolGato’s sail system to take measurements for a new sail, I thought I would post a walk around video featuring SolGato’s A-Frame masted hybrid Lateen/CrabClaw sail rig.
The sail system borrows partly from the past and from the modern day and was designed to be simple, easy to step and strike, to play nice with all of SolGato’s other features, and to take advantage of our light trade winds in the Summer.
Let’s start with the mast. It’s an A-frame design that is attached to the outer ends of the main foreword crossbeam where the standard Hobie mast is stepped. The mast pivots at the outer base ends allowing it to swing down over the bow or the stern for trailering or stowage on the water and to change the CE and the angle and position of the sail volume.
The sail then has two sprits with the upper becoming the 3rd leg of the mast to create a tripod. It is fixed to the front trampoline crossbeam at its base and is hung from a eye bolt inside the the top of the A with the second lower sprit attached off it at the base with a rotating collar that allows the lower sprit to swing and tack within the legs of the A-frame mast and swing up or down.
To spill and “drop” the sail, you pull the lower sprit to the upper which keeps it off the deck or in this case the solar Bimini top.
Control line rigging is kept simple. There is a split main downhaul on the lower sprit that works like a set of Jib sheets leading out to each A-frame mast leg base to control the movement of the lower sprit within the A-frame, a line to raise the top sprit and sail up into the A, and an internal upper line that raises the lower sprit up to meet the top sprit for closing/collapsing the sail.
The sail has pockets to accept the sprits and the whole setup can be struck or stepped on the water.
As you can see from the video, SolGato’s solar hardtop gets positioned into a wedge shape to allow for max clearance of the lower sprit (boom), and a removable center rear rudder is mounted for steering that features a double jointed tiller so she can be sailed from either lounge seat.
The new sail will be fashioned from a modified Sunfish cruising sail that will be cut down in size with pockets added for the sprits.

Опубликовано:

12 сен 2024

Ссылка:

Скачать:

Готовим ссылку...

Добавить в:

Мой плейлист

Посмотреть позже

Комментарии : 4

@warrior9086 Год назад

Hi and THXs. Sorry...took me a while to run numbers. Above all first a few words to my cruising ground. Weather... 10 month absolutely blue sky screaming for solar- the rest of 2 month some clouds with some rain and maybe 20-30 days no sun. Wind 200 days 8 - 15 m/sec for comfortable sailing ...the rest above or below. On one side a beautiful big natural park low water level ( excellent fishing ) leading in to a big inland water lake before exiting to the ocean through a wide channel > No bridges, on the other side coming out of the natural park flowing through the center of a small town and then flowing through a 10 mile inland water way into a big weather protected bay and from there with exit to 2 rivers leading up stream deep into the country side. Lot´s of Nautic clubs and beach bars for a cool snack or drink and great boating if the ocean is rough or weather conditions don´t allow. In other words with the RIGHT boat 365 days fun all year round. But here is the challenge.... right in the middle there is this BRIDGE. With high tide > EVERYTHING above deck has to come down !! With low tide draft is CRITICAL. Of course I want a bigger boat but at the cost of the limits mentioned. Just not worth while. I found smaller boats are more practical, less time to get on the water. Of course my personal experience. Till now I manage with a 100 Hp 3 seater SeaDoo and a fishing kayak with the disadvantage.... no comfortable space for hanging out or very limited, limited expeditions due to lack of storage. The SeaDoo fits under the bridge but sometimes at very low tide I have to get off and even push. At least the bottom is sandy > no damage to the hull. AND... there is this small ocean exit channel that goes till aprox 200 yards of my property. With high tide comfortable 50 feet wide and 6-8 feet deep but with low tide about 15-18 feet wide and only 1-1/2 - 4 feet deep. Yeah and lately I am getting a little tired of the Seadoo because the day starts with a 150 $ run to the gas station + all the hassle with a quality maintenance. Definitely with some of the features of my cruising ground safety and reliability is an issue and not to be under estimated !! You wrote ... above all else, the max hull speed and shape of the vessel is where everything starts. Yeah, them beach type cats are hard to beat in this fundamental aspect. Only other alternative I see is a small TRI but till now all my further design consideration are the same. Of course my considerations are very close to SolGato as You can imagine. However till now my final conclusion was a Dart 18. At first sight the hulls are very similar, no keel. However the hulls are fiberglass and even so about 20 inches longer weighs 100 Lbs less @ 286 Lbs. That´s of course without the consideration of negative and positive aspects between fiberglass and polyethylene hulls. Well, that discussion is endless. But there is another detail that draws my attention. The draft of the Getaway is rated at 10 inches and the Dart is 4 inches. Yeah, kind of hard to believe but all my internet research leads me to the same result. Well, while the concept of the Getaway is more a family type more comfortable cat with 1000 Lbs of payload the Dart is all about racing and performance with clocked speeds + 20 Mph. That leads me to the conclusion that the Dart hulls got to have more buoyancy to plane to reach those speeds ? Pending confirmation !! I think due to a much more aggressive sail rig there has to be more pressure on one hull at max load. In theory that should lead to a better hull speed of the Dart and a higher payload and off course the Dart is 20 inches longer and on a small boat with my design concepts every inch counts. But now You put me in doubts. There are a few details on the Getaway that make a big difference. For example the 3rd cross beam is an absolute must. So with the Getaway the 3rd cross beam and the trampolin is standard while on the Dart that would be $$$$ custom. Yeah, that is a project... specially the trampolin. Also taking a close look at Your videos it seems the Getaway has much more easy attachment points. Yeah, no final conclusions yet. I already took the A frame to the next step with folding the tubes in half. I believe You wanna run the numbers on the Hyundai solar panels > Modell VG - Mod UF and Mod SG. Yes, about 10 times more weight but the frame is structural and for this project where space is critical I believe they are a game changer. Had a close look at Your solar panel structure. Had a similar idea and was thinking about injecting air or water to cool the panels down for better efficiency. How much weight is Your solar mounting plate including the frame, the plastic panels and the solar panels ? As to Batteries... I wanna built my own packs ... 2-4 packs for added safety, 21700 format, 3 hours @full speed @ 50% of discharge capacity. Hoping to touch 10 Mph. Together with the solar panels that should give me full cover of my cruising ground all year round including a few gadgets. I am still worried about the weight. There is the issue with low tide under the bridge and I wanna be able to trailer the boat with a Quad to my property.

@kauaislash5 Год назад

To answer/address a few of your questions/considerations, yes I think the Dart hulls are a good choice for efficiency. They won’t float as much weight, so if you keep the build on the lighter side and aren’t loading he boat with lots of passengers, you should be okay. The difference between the two is where the volume is placed in the hulls. If you looked at a Hobie Getaway hull straight on and a Dart, you would see that the Hobie hull flares out to a bulbous shape where as the Dart is more of a traditional wedge. This allows the Hobie to float a lot of weight when loaded and not powered up by wind, but then the volume is lifted out of the water when sailing allowing for efficiency. It’s also due to part of the molding process and need for strength. As you’ve noted the plastic hulls also weigh a lot more. The draft difference has a lot to do with the low aspect keel built into the Wave. It has little buoyancy as its double thick sandwiched material which provides beaching protection and point ability when under sail, compared to the Dart which has a similar feature but likely has some volume built in creating buoyancy. So the extra weight and the thick tall heavy keel all lead to a higher draft, maybe even the passenger capacity with the Dart being a 1-2 and Getaway being 2-4. I hear ya on the panels. My top only weighs about 100lbs and I decided to use flex panels and ridged polycarbonate with aluminum frame because I use the boat in the rolling ocean which is hard on the support structure since it has to articulate, also to keep weight within linear actuators lifting abilities. Adding a 3rd crossbeam to the Dart hulls should be easy enough. It only has to support the trampoline along front edge. If you decide to build a ridged deck and not use trampolines, take a look at ThermoLite engineered fiberglass board, or even easier and probably cheaper, extruded aluminum plank boards like used in bleachers, pontoon boat decks, etc. If you haven’t purchased panels yet, consider Bi-facial. Sounds like you have enough sun to take advantage of the gains from reflection off the water. I think you are on the right track for building something to suit your specific needs that is easy to launch and operate with the various challenges and typical environmental conditions. That’s really what it’s all about. No boat can do everything great, it’s all a compromise, but you can design it so that you spend more time enjoying it that cursing it 😂

@adamdarrow 22 дня назад

Did you get this hybrid system working?

@kauaislash5 18 дней назад

The rigging and controls were all completed but I still need to finish its custom sail. Might get around to it this winter so next summer I can complete a long distance sail/motoring trip I have planned.