Embarrassed of cambered panels, here we go again...
David Thatcher wrote: «With the sail up in no wind conditions I was always slightly embarrassed by the wrinkly bag of 'Footprints' sail, but...» The same has been expressed by other JRA-members, among them, Shirley Carter on Speedwell.
Back in the beginning of this century, the photo below to the left (from 2000), was shown to the members of the Yahoo JR group, and there was a lot of cheering and hoorays. Then, a few days later, the photo, below, r. was uploaded to the same site. This photo was taken a few minutes after the first one and shows Samson when he runs into a wind shadow, and the panels are deflated. It clearly was a shocking sight. Words like “terrible” and “bloody awful” was sometimes used. It seems that that many were put off from cambered panels by this photo, and rather turned to hinged battens.
I remember that I then thought to myself: “Have they ever thought of how Cutty Sark’s sails may have looked like when becalmed?” Of course, no marine painter would paint Cutty Sark when becalmed: They would paint her as if sailing on a broad reach, with all sails set - and with flags and burgees mostly pointing straight aft... Now, I haven’t seen any photo of a becalmed Cutty Sark, but I have seen old photos of square-riggers drying their sail in harbour, and the sails of course looked like laundry on a string.
Sooo... please stop fretting over such details, and focus on making your sails work when there is a wind...
Cheers, Arne
PS: In the beginning of June, it will be 25 years since I hoisted my blue cambered-panel sail on Malena for the first time (see NL 30). No big milestone for the world, but a fine little jubilee for me.