I must learn to stick my tongue more firmly in my cheek when using hyperbole!  Nonetheless, I don't consider myself entirely unreasonable and am still planning to build a wingsail.  Of course, I'll watch David's sea trials carefully and benefit from his experience as well.  Although, it has little in common with a Junk Rig, Beneteau is making a commercial wingsail available  http://www.beneteau.com/Sailing-Yachts/Wing-Sail

There is no doubt that David's current sail required a diverse range of skills and most of all, sheer willpower to come into being.  However, most of the heavy lifting has been done, with David gracious enough to blaze trail.  I think the horizon will soon be filled with the outlines of wingsails powerfully propelling craft.  Despite having witnessed/shared a few of David's struggles, I'm still convinced that building a wingsail is the way forward for me.  With the aesthetic of a Junk and the performance of a wing, who could refuse?

Well done, David.  Let's hope you get plenty of good sailing in which to try her out.  I'm looking forward to seeing photos of Tystie from a distance.  But I think I'll stick with what I've got - or there or thereabouts.  It all seems too much like hard and skilled work to me!

Looks great David and interesting that you have gone back to the wing sail after the camber panel sail. Looking forward to an informative article with construction details and also hearing how it works out in the longer term but judging from your comments already posted it may be a better sail than the fantail sail. Who knows, this may be something for footprints in the future. 

Unfortunately Footprints was quite badly damaged in the stern area as a result of a mooring incident during a recent bad storm. I am just waiting on insurance details to be worked out before repairs will be undertaken by one of our local boat builders.

At last. It took four months to do two months work, but at last, the new rig is working. 

The mast has to be lengthened, to accommodate the high aspect ratio sail.

It took a long time to work out methods to make the carbon fibre battens, to be light, stiff, strong, smooth...

The sail was the relatively easy part. Flat cut, just big. 580sq ft working area, x 1.5  to give total area to be sewn.

Now comes the payoff for all that work. There are still plenty of things to be tweaked, but the performance to windward is much better, sailing closer and footing faster. Handling is easier than the low aspect ratio fansail, as the chord is two metres less.

Some early photos here.