Maybe an odd way to start building a boat, but the very first part of proasis will be the rig (naval term for mast, sail and all other parts belonging to them). Why? That’s a bit of a story:
Originally, proasis was supposed to get a free standing carbon mast (free standing means no shrouds to hold it up) with a soft wing sail on it (see a video of something similar here).
Aside of the not very sustainable carbon part we never got happy with the design:
- Much additional work for the mast construction
- High expenses for the materials
- Even more work for sewing the sail (it needs sewed in shape!)
- High bending moments in the leeward hull around the mast bearing
- Unsustainable design, many new and non degradable parts involved
We thought about many workarounds and fancy designs but eventually came back to the (Marshallese) oceanic lateen sail!
Proofed for centuries on the pacific, the biggest ocean of our planet. For us the best sail possible:
- Decent performance (we measured the performance of marshallese canoes!)
- Simple and cheap to build (spars and flat cloth only)
- Low center of effort
- Low stress in the sailcloth
For the spars we were lucky to get tons of old windsurfing mast for free by our sailing club:
The windsurf mast were simply transferred into mast and booms and laid out to test the geometry for shunting:
Next week we will get some cloth and sew the sail. Stay tuned!