sailing wakataitea

Comment by dennis schneider on March 10, 2014 at 7:48pm

Hi Hans (und Frau) I have been watching your videos here for some time, and have learned a lot from you about your motor/outdrive: danke sehr! But I'm really wondering about your crab claw rig. Now that you are paying $3500 for new sails, after 20k miles of safe sailing, you deserve credit for making this innovative rig work. But at what cost to you, personnally, when you have to reef or go to windward? Tell us about why you didn't use  the cutter rig? One could have the benefit of used sails and mast for under $1500. Aren't you paying a premium just to be different? I'm just quopting the cost of your new sails from Lee Sails; you have a lot more invested in your rig than that... and working out the bugs must have been very trying too. Why not stick with a standard cutter rig, like Wharram recommends for the Ariki, but without the fully battened main. You know, roller furling jib and genua are so much more available in used sail lofts. so why  not dsdo that to save money and time? My Tangaroa was a ketch, and I found it too complicated and expensive; I would go back to the cutter rig on my next boat, because the inner foresail drives the boat in a strong wind withor without the reefed main. and on a downwind course you boom out twin jibs on double forestays, without the main; it runs straight and true in the Trades. So, tell us, why be different? hochachtungsvoll, dennis schneider

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