PDRacer Sailboat - Articles

Unusual Sails

Mary Poppins Spinnaker
(also known as an umbrella)
An umbrella has many useful jobs on a small boat, being a comical spinnaker is just one of the. Kayakers have often used umbrellas as down wind sails, the trick to using them is to tie little strings from the points of the sail back to the handle so that the frame won't turn itself inside out.

The main use of an umbrella aboard a pdracer is for shade, also known as a poor man's bimini.

Or consider getting a large beach type umbrella, leave the sail rig at home and take your kids or spouse out rowing.

Wing Sail
Just like an airplane wing, some are rigid and curved on one side, others are thick with one flat side, and one curved side. There are a couple of different ways to do it. One way is to have a wing that is fixed in shape, and held up from the middle. When you tack, the sail is flipped over top of the mast and flown from the other side. Other rigid wing sails have multiple parts that rotate and slide back and forth in guides to form the airfoil shape. A soft wing sail has been invented that has an air bag inside it, and as you tack from side to side, the bag moves to the other side putting the curve over there. The picture to the right is Jason Nabor's sail on F.O.W.L.
WingSails.com
Other Wing Sails

Kite Sail
Kites are receiving a lot of attention for use as sails. Some are used with a small surf board, while others are using them as spinnakers. The theory is that the kite lifts as well as pulls.
kiteship.com

skysails.info

Make your own "sled" kite

Rectangular Spinnaker
Look at how the sail is dragging him thru the sand!!
Made from garbage bags, see Garbasail.com

Gibbons Rig
Most often used on proas, this sail is sort of like a batwing that is easy to change directions, because proas shunt instead of tack.

Sort of related to the Gibbons, see Mr. Smith's Amazing Sailboats for some really radical proas.

The Bolger, or AYRS Sail
(Amateur Yacht Research Society)
Also commonly used on proas, the Bolger (not to be confused with the "Bolger 59") uses battons to shape the sail, and the theory is that it has a better shape control, and the upper portion of the sail can be kept from twisting. Also the clear luff is supposed to give it higher performance because the air isn't spoiled by a mast.

Soft AYRS Sail
A non-batten version of the sail has been suggested too, but since the PDRacer doesn't shunt, this would end up being a mast aft / jib only sail.

Diamond Sprit
Sort of in the same spirit of the AYRS, only it has a single sprit boom instead of battens. The boom is not attached to the mast.

Ljungstrom Rig
Looks like a standard jib, only it is 2 jibs that are folded flat when sailing to windward, and they are opened when sailing down wind. Often used on blue water sailboats, the sheets can be led back to the tiller to automatically steer down wind. The "SoDoIt" class used this as their only sail. The guy who sailed a Montgomery 15 from California to Hawaii used one of these rigs most of the time.

Balestron Rig
It looks like a sloop, only that the mast rotates with a large horizontal spar that the jib and main are flown from. The theory is that the sail can be shaped properly from the large spar, and keeps it's shape because the spar is always pointed into the wind.
JP's Model Catamaran
AeroRig
FoxxAero

BalancedRig.com - A version that has a yard attached to the top of the mast

Segmental sail
It is a sail with a bunch of vertical slats, looks rather like gills of a fish

Biplane
A hull that uses 2 sails on seperate masts that are next to each other. The theory is that the sails won't spoil each other's wind and a larger amount of sail area can be flown with a lower center of effort. When sailing down wind, the sails are let out on opposit sides.

Windmill
A large fan is used to catch the wind and turn a shaft, which turns a propeller. The catamaran from waterworld had one. The theory is that a boat can sail dead to windward, which is a 2:1 advantage over a boat that can only go 45 degrees into the wind.

Rotor sail
Large spinning cylinders that stand vertical on a boat.
RexResearch.com

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