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Escape rig


Noklin

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A few years ago I looked at a cheap plastic boat sold under the brand name of Escape. The boat had an interesting cat boat rig. It used a free standing carbon mast with separate boom. Both were deck mounted with bearings that allowed them to turn easily. With a separate boom not attached to the mast, releasing the outhaul and pulling the reefing line would rotate the mast to reef or store the mainsail around the mast within seconds. The boom came up vertically high enough for head clearance before bending horizontally. The sail was loose footed and only attached to the boom by the outhaul. From what I read and heard from other people, the rig worked well. Not sure how well it would work reefed.

Does anyone know if this type of rig has been used on other boats?

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Something like this, as used on a jib by Gary Hoyt: http://www.alerionexp.com/JibBoom.html ?

I've also had experience on an experimental 65' boat that had its boom mounted to a short stump or pedestal with upper and lower mounting points, so a boom vang was not needed. It needed the boom mounted like that since the rig was an A-frame, and the main sail's roller furler was attached between the A's apex and the top of that pedestal.

Reefing the main was not great for a few reasons, mostly having to do with the sail shape dictated by the batten/leech technology of that time (early 90s).

Personal choice: For a small boat of the Escape size, I'd keep the unstayed rig and ditch the boom+roller reeefing in favor of a wishbone and slab-reefing, any day. Like on the Wylie 17. (http://www.wyliecat.com/models/gallery/17/wylie_17_06.html)

Good luck in your search,

pat

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