David Tyler wrote:David,

Your halyard attachment point is 10.4m above the deck, and my mainmast is 10.5m above the deck. I find that I can draw a fanned sail to fit on my mast at an area anywhere between 38.4 sq m ( a high aspect ratio sail as mainsail for my ketch rig, with batten length 4.65m) and 58.3 sq m ( a single sail similar to the 80 sq m one, with batten length 6.93m).

It should be possible to draw something to suit Footprints.

Hello David,

My current battens are 6.3 metres in length. I need .8m clearance to the deck at the mast and about 1.2m minimum deck clearance 5 metres back from the mast to clear the boom gallows. I currently have about 1m of the sail ahead of the mast. Current sail area is approximatley 51.5 square metres.

On another technical note I have just finished building a pendulum servo self steering gear based on tips you gave me when we last met and which is also a modification of the Belcher design from his book. I am about to hook everything up and try it out so hopefully I will have some good news on that soon. Either that or I am going to have a small pile of beautifully painted fire wood ready for next winters fires!

David

David,

Are the fan shaped sails you are drawing now based on the proportions which had been published a few years ago in an article by yourself in the JRA Journal? When I drew a sail to these proportions a couple of years ago I ended up with quite long batten lengths for a sail to match Footprints rig. I have had a look at the drawings of the sails you did for Annie Hill and the 80 sq.m sail and I like the steep yard angle and the fact that the yards are shorter than the batten lengths which would mean a lighter yard. The square top shape on the 80 sq.m sail also looks good. David

Well, I've moved on a bit from my first attempts at fanned sails. The sail for Fantail was designed for a very particular set of requirements, including the raked mast (for the sake of the accommodation), battens to be made from 5m tubes, and the simplest rigging possible.

How about sending me the lengths of your cedar battens, and I'll see what I can do to scale the 80 sq m sail to fit Footprints, tweaking it for the maximum performance and taking into account the need to swing the sail across the mast on a run.