Anonymous wrote: Really? How fascinating! I had never heard about that boat. I can't imagine how a mast would stand the loads put onto it without shrouds, but I don't pretend to have any knowledge of engineering.
Anny ... just as any junkrig mast !
If you have nos shrouds you have lateral bending efforts only. the compression effort are limited to the forstay and backstay; to hold the luff of the jib strait. The mast must be reinforced with carbon fiber...
A modern exemple is the mini 6.50 (meter) ARKEMA with no shrouds, a rotating carbon mast, a wing-sail in two parts with a slot, huge jibs, running back stays and eventually foils and a round scow nose. She was a bit heavy and had good results but didn't win many races.
The mini 6.50 rule and the associated class are a fabulous research playing ground. It's a box rule where you can experiment many thing.
I dream of a mini 6.50 with a huge junk wing-sail, a blade jib as on the AC75 and huge asymmetrical spinnakers, running back-stays to hold the jibs; on a hull with scow nose, self regulated foils (as on the flying Moths) and under-rudder foils. It would be easy to fly, very powerfull and fast. Perfect to win the Mini transat.
In the ARKEMA video, in French i'm afraid, the navigation part starts around minute 5.
Eric
https://www.qwant.com/?client=brz-moz&q=mini+6.50+Arkema+bateau&t=videos&o=0%3AYSQJPvE86-w