This question has probably been asked a hundred times before. I am
completing my first boat, a modified Uncle John's 12 ft. flat bottom skiff
and now it is time to decide on a sail. The modifications include floatation
seats, stronger mast partner at the level of the front decking and oversized
material in other areas. It is still very light, weighing about 70 pounds
without paint. It will be sailed on small inland lakes.

My first sail choice is poly-tarp for it's low cost. The white tarp is much
heavier than the colors (12 mil, 6 oz. vs. 7 mil, 3.3 oz.) but it IS white.
Since this boat will not see a lot of action, I am not worried about UV, so
I was thinking that the lighter the material the better the sail will
perform. I don't mind my sail being orange or yellow especially if it
performs better. So, colored and lightweight or white and heavy?

A simple sprit sail of about 63 sq. ft. is what I was planning to start off.
Is this too big for a rookie?

For a mast I was planing on fence rail, laminated wood or possibly closet
rod. Does the mast material matter much on that type of sail?

Thanks for any feedback

EZ

sounds about right. you can buy white cotton canvas at fabric stores.
I've seen polyester paitner's drop cloths and wondered how strong they are.
There's info on sizing of mast and sail on my website (see below) under
Boats and Sprit Sail.

"EZ" (ez at visi.com) writes:
This question has probably been asked a hundred times before. I am
completing my first boat, a modified Uncle John's 12 ft. flat bottom skiff
and now it is time to decide on a sail. The modifications include floatation
seats, stronger mast partner at the level of the front decking and oversized
material in other areas. It is still very light, weighing about 70 pounds
without paint. It will be sailed on small inland lakes.

My first sail choice is poly-tarp for it's low cost. The white tarp is much
heavier than the colors (12 mil, 6 oz. vs. 7 mil, 3.3 oz.) but it IS white.
Since this boat will not see a lot of action, I am not worried about UV, so
I was thinking that the lighter the material the better the sail will
perform. I don't mind my sail being orange or yellow especially if it
performs better. So, colored and lightweight or white and heavy?

A simple sprit sail of about 63 sq. ft. is what I was planning to start off.
Is this too big for a rookie?

For a mast I was planing on fence rail, laminated wood or possibly closet
rod. Does the mast material matter much on that type of sail?

Thanks for any feedback

EZ




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Why not an eight foot spruce 2x4?
Rip it to the proper taper in the profile view, I assume it is a tapered
mast. If the mast needs to be thicker than 1.5 inches laminate two
cheeks of wood onto the bottom and whittle them down.
Fence rails around here are eight feet long and abour five inches
diameter. Way too fat for a mast for this little boat.
You want a sail that is as low profile as possible with a little boat
like this. You also want the mast to flex alot to spill wind.
63 feet seems like a lot of sail. Plan on getting wet.

EZ wrote:
For a mast I was planing on fence rail, laminated wood or possibly closet
rod.

A rule of thumb I've heard is that for beginners, multiply the max beam
by max length and that should be your sail area.

EZ wrote:
This question has probably been asked a hundred times before. I am
completing my first boat, a modified Uncle John's 12 ft. flat bottom skiff
and now it is time to decide on a sail. The modifications include floatation
seats, stronger mast partner at the level of the front decking and oversized
material in other areas. It is still very light, weighing about 70 pounds
without paint. It will be sailed on small inland lakes.

My first sail choice is poly-tarp for it's low cost. The white tarp is much
heavier than the colors (12 mil, 6 oz. vs. 7 mil, 3.3 oz.) but it IS white.
Since this boat will not see a lot of action, I am not worried about UV, so
I was thinking that the lighter the material the better the sail will
perform. I don't mind my sail being orange or yellow especially if it
performs better. So, colored and lightweight or white and heavy?

A simple sprit sail of about 63 sq. ft. is what I was planning to start off.
Is this too big for a rookie?

For a mast I was planing on fence rail, laminated wood or possibly closet
rod. Does the mast material matter much on that type of sail?

Thanks for any feedback

EZ



--
Matt Langenfeld
JEM Watercraft
http://jem.e-boat.net/

Matt Langenfeld ) writes:
A rule of thumb I've heard is that for beginners, multiply the max beam
by max length and that should be your sail area.

unfortunealtely that ignores displacement. in the sprit sail file on my
website there are two rules involving displacement and one invovling
wetted surface. the rule involving wetted sruface and one invovling
displacment are the usual standards and the other invovlign diplacemetn is
a near approximation to the first derived by TF Jones for small boats in
the apoprox 250-350 lb displacement range. I find the wetted surface rule
produces too big a sail for small boats so the displacment rule is better.
Since a sprit sail spills more wind than the bermudan which is what the
rules are for there is an error in favour of underpowering the sprit sail
slightly when close hauled, which is good.

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