Single-Stayed Mast?

[fotobywes]

I just finished painting the exterior of my Cayat (and even my mother-in-law says it looks good), and I'm getting ready to rebuild the interior. About the only thing that will remain stock is the daggerboard box and the seatbacks.

I was planning on going with an unstayed, wishbone boom mast with a roller-reefing sail for simplicity, but I've been reading the web again, and I've come across a number of pundits who criticize the unstayed design; principally because it isolates all of the sail force in the mast step, and therefore the mast & mast step must be built even heavier & stronger than if there were a couple of stays. While they are usually talking about real yachts, and not a Folbot "car yacht," they still have a point...

But I also have some unpleasant childhood memories of the lateen sail on our Cayat getting jammed up in the sidestays prior to swamping, and I'm therefore quite attracted to the concept of an unstayed mast. However, given what I've read online, the idea of distributing the sail force, instead of isolating it, is also attractive.

I've already decided to reinforce the mast step with trusses/ribs (the ribs will connect the daggerboard box, mast step & aka, so that the various forces cancel each other out), but I'm wondering if anyone on the folbot forum can speak to the practicality of a single, rear stayed mast. Given that with its planing hull the Cayat is designed for going fast downwind, that single stay might not be a bad idea...I'm envisioning a stay running from the aft point of the deck to the top of the mast. Since I'm going with a rigid mast/boom, I would need a simple, roller bearing mechanism at both the bottom and top in order to allow the mast to rotate freely. I've also seen some multi-hull designs with rear stays running from the aft of each ama, giving both lateral & longitudinal stability. But I still would not want the stays to impede the rotation of the mast/boom.

Input?

[PeteS]

You could go with a short, un-stayed mast and use a lug sail.

I made a sail rig with a cut down sailboard sail. The roller reef work fine with a round-head screw at the bottom (bearing) and waxed the hole in the mast partner(I used a 1 3/8 wooden closet pole 10' tall). I controlled the reef with a line attached on the boom (which locked the mast in place). The system worked fine but a finally bought a new Folbot sail rig and love it. I didn't have any amas or akas on the homemade rig.

Good luck, messing with the boat is just as much fun as sailing it.

[fotobywes]

Thanks, Pete, for the suggestion on the lugged sail...it's something that I keep hearing from a bunch of different folks, and I guess in a way I've experienced a lugged sail with the old lateen rig. (Yes, I know, it's not the same, but it's more rigid at the top than a traditional, triangular mainsail.)

I'm looking forward to getting to a flotilla or two in the next few years and seeing how other sailing kayaks are set up & handle.