Thread: Maori canoe sails

Hi everybody
Not having much to do, so I decided to go with the flow and be more like a Maori, for which I would need need a canoe, a double one like a catamaran, so have enlarged my boat sail research to now include a crablclaw sail, I have test results of about six other types of sails with my favorite being a wingsail of a symmetrical shape, some models fixed and some collapsible.
I searched the web for a few weeks and came up with a starting design, and tried it out, with very good results.
However my design has shifted about somewhat and at this moment is very close to the sail shape that looks a little like a fish tail, it is made from a piece of 3mm hardboard and is some like 40 square inches and compares most favorably with some fore and aft Bermuda rigs in the 70 to 80 square inch range.
This style of rig works on a different principle, this being a vortex generated lift and to develop it further requires some considerable engineering. By this I mean mucking about in my workshop.
I have a great admiration for those early Maori sailors and their very clever seamanship

Are you planning on building this canoe yourself ?

I used to build and sail catamarans back in the day, and it sound's like -

this is what you are aiming towards:




If you are building it yourself, it could be an idea, to pick up, one of the many small cats, that go for small money on Trademe.

The advantage being, that they usually have, sturdy fibre glass hulls and have various aluminium spars and sails to cut up for experimentation.

Like a Wind Rush.

Noelfj

Try this, you'll might find it interesting. (https://www.wharram.com/)

Noelfj, please post some picture of the progress of your project. Good luck.

40 square inches.....so pocket handkerchief size...you can just about parashute a plastic actionman kids toy on one of those...not sure how much propulsion/pull you will generate with it

Originally Posted by Micky Duck

40 square inches.....so pocket handkerchief size...you can just about parashute a plastic actionman kids toy on one of those...not sure how much propulsion/pull you will generate with it

With a 150 on the back, ill go like the clappers

when they pulled up in a burnt out fj .......


for some reason that line comes to mind
lmfao

What I am dong is purely research into the nature of this particular sail, and doing various actual tests on models, I will soon be 86 and do not see myself as breasting the mighty Pacific Ocean waves. It is sort of a hobby and I have a small fan, run of a 12 volt battery and a turning arm where I set the different models on. Measurement is take of lift and drag, here are today's resuts.
Ketch, like a schooner, sail area 48 square inches, lift 5 drag 8 to nine
Flat back triangle like the one shown, 49 square inches lift 6 to seven drag 7 to 8
Curved back, slightly longer and not so wide 49 square inches lift 5 to 6, drag 8 to 9
Foam Wing, polystyrene wrapped in cello tape, frontal area 30, lift 8 to 9, drag 7 to 8.
I have a couple of examples of reef-able of the symmetrical foil, rather like a wrap around Junk sail.
The wing sail is on a rotating mast, under way there is just one control, a rotating device, for the 360 degree rotation, it will allow one to sail backward.
My current project is the design of a 1000 square ft sail with a working load of 4 lbs per square ft, and top load of 8 lbs a square ft. to get the best from this crab-claw sail it needs to be mounted at the pointy ends.