CS 20 Balanced Lug

[Terry Dunn]

I have worked off and on (mostly off) on a balanced lug rig for my CS 20. I made two 90 sq ft poly tarp sails. The idea is lazy sails with on sail in the middle position and not so lazy sails with both sails. A friend and I finally got around to going out with both sails in the local reservoir. The wind varied from no wind to just a little for most of the time. When it was time to go in the wind picked up  and we had a few minutes of between 6 and 7 mph.

 

I hollowed the leeches on the sails but I get quite a bit of leech flutter. My sail making skills are not so hot. But overall I am pleased with how they work.

 

The main goal was to have a rig that sets up faster to get in the water faster. That goal was achieved when only using one sail. Not so much with both.

 

 

[Terry Dunn]

Here is a picture of the sails and my friend George:

[wkisting]

Pretty cool, Terry! How does it compare with the original rig? More or less stable? Well balanced with a neutral helm? Also, do you leave the sails attached to the spars--is that how it aims to save you setup time? I would think that would indeed speed up rigging time, but you seem to imply that it didn't turn out that way.

[tom151]

I have worked off and on (mostly off) on a balanced lug rig for my CS 20. I made two 90 sq ft poly tarp sails. The idea is lazy sails with on sail in the middle position and not so lazy sails with both sails. A friend and I finally got around to going out with both sails in the local reservoir. The wind varied from no wind to just a little for most of the time. When it was time to go in the wind picked up  and we had a few minutes of between 6 and 7 mph.

 

I hollowed the leeches on the sails but I get quite a bit of leech flutter. My sail making skills are not so hot. But overall I am pleased with how they work.

 

The main goal was to have a rig that sets up faster to get in the water faster. That goal was achieved when only using one sail. Not so much with both.

 

Great project there, very interested to hear lots more of the details...

 

Any more sailing excursions? Perhaps in more wind, under reefed conditions?

 

How are you doing getting the boat to go to weather? How many degrees between tacks?

 

Any progress to report on finding the remedy to the leech flutter? Maybe a bit more boom downhaul/vang tension?

 

Would be interested to know if you made any changes to the CS20 other than the change from sprits to yards/booms ?

 

Are masts in original position? are they original length? Is centerboard same size and location?

 

The sails do look (camera angle perhaps) like they're a bit higher aspect ratio than most I've seen - is that true, and what was your reasoning on choosing the the lengths of the boom and yard?

 

 

Thanks for making the leap to try this out,

TomH

[maligno]

Mike Storer has a thorough discussion of balanced lug rigging here: 

http://www.storerboatplans.com/wp/design/rig/sails/making-balance-lugs-faster-2013-setting-up-sails-spars-and-rigging/

Some of his ideas may be relevant to this thread.

[Terry Dunn]

Wes, I have about 25 sq ft more sail area than the original rig.There wasn't enough wind to make any judgments regarding stability. The few minutes we sailed with wind was fun but not enough wind to be at the edge. Not sure yet how the helm will be. Pretty neutral with not much  wind. I think my CE is a little aft of where it should be.

 

The sails stay attached to the spars. Looking back on the day it probably was faster set up. Left home at 9:00 am for the 8 mile drive, stopped at subway to buy sandwiches, in the water at 10:00. With some tweaking and practice the set up should be pretty good.

Tom, It will be a few weeks before I get the boat out again. I am retired so one would think I could hit the water more often but I need to visit my sister next week. She lives a couple hours drive from Port Townsend so I will get to swing by the wooden boat festival.

 

Next time out I plan to practice reefing and hopefully will have enough wind at some point to actually need to reef. When I did the Texas 200 in 2011 there was never a time I did not have a reef in at least one sail.

 

The leech flutter is interesting. Increasing the downhaul moves the flutter up the sail. Decreasing moves it down the sail. Not sure what I am going to do. More hollow to the leech. Battens. Just ignore it and sail.

 

My CS20 is built per plan. No changes to the centerboard for the BL rig. I made 16' masts for the BL sails. My standard rig masts are 22'.

I chose the boom length based on having clearance between the main and mizzen using the standard mast positions.

 

Thanks for the Storer link. That is one I had not seen. I used another Mike Storer site for rigging info. The sail dimensions started from a Welsford  100 sqft SCAMP sail for PD Goose web site. I made the foot shorter ending with about 90 sqft per sail. No original thinking on my part. I have one loose footed and one laced to the boom. They are just toys to play with you know. I think I prefer the loose foot.

[Randy Jones]

Terry,

You'll see plenty of balanced lug sails up at Port Townsend.  I've sailed my CS17 in their company many times and have admired their relatively large sail areas and wondered what they would do on the coresound hull.

I cannot catch the big lug sails on broad reaches but it appears I have an advantage in pointing against most of them.  I've also noticed they avoid running dead down wind and never sheet out past 90 degrees due to concerns about rolling.

When you get more time on the water it would be interesting to hear more, especially regarding speed, pointing, and stability downwind.

I'll be showing my CS17 at Port Townsend (on a trailer) - stop and say hello if you have time.

[Terry Dunn]

^{Randy , I will look for you next weekend.}