I have a question for you...
When was the last time you flew on an airplane whose wings were held up by wire rigging?Keep that in mind while we discuss a boat design...
Roy over in South Africa is on something of a roll putting together lots of kits for folks to build boats with. Apparently if you want a kit that can be cobbled together with a computer and an automated cutter he is THE MAN!
Many so-called experts (folks who wear sailing gloves, refer to themselves as "Captain", and think "yachting caps" don't make them look foolish), will go on and on about unstayed masts not being "proper" or "seaworthy" and expound on the "proper" way to rig a boat is the silliness called the Marconi rig.
Sadly, the fact that we are even having to have this conversation, speaks more about the fact that idiots abound and P.T. Barnum knew what he was talking about rather than it does about yacht design.
Simply put, technology long ago sorted out how to make things stand up or out without wire as the wings of a 747 attest to and if you believe otherwise, I expect you are not getting a whole lot of frequent flyer miles.
Building a cat-rigged boat makes a lot of sense in terms of budget (standing rigging is a huge chunk of a boat build budget) and for those of us who do not do round-the-buoys racing, the need for into the wind windward performance is simply not a needful thing...
Personally I like cat-rigged boats because they are quiet and all that wire makes for a noisy night. Once when we were anchored in the Canaries and having dinner on another boat we felt the need to leave early thinking we were in a full tilt boogie gale and once we rowed back to our boat we realized it was just what their boat sounded like in 15 knots... No need for panic stations!
Anyway, back to Roy and a very cool design and he has a lot more info to show you...
Listening to the Texas Tornados
So it goes...
