Breeding Two Boats . . .

[cortezaero]

I am humbly seeking the collective wisdom of all those gathered here. ;-)

I have an old Sunfish with a hull that is beyond any repairs that I want to attempt.
However the sail, mast, spars, and tiller are all in serviceable condition (for recreational purposes).

I recently acquired a free Escape Mambo hull. It had no sail, mast, boom, or rudder. It did have the attached swing down daggerboard. They are no longer making the Escape line of boats and there are no mast or boom assemblies to be found in the US. You can still get some other parts.

Being made by the same parent company, the Sunfish rudder fits the Mambo perfectly.

I am trying to use the Sunfish sail on the Mambo.

I have modified the Mambo slightly to accept the mast and also slightly modified the Sunfish mast to fit properly to the Mambo hull. All of that is working well. I believe the Mambo originally had a 64 sq.ft. sail and, if I'm not mistaken, the Sunfish is 75 sq.ft.

My problem is how far back the Sunfish sail sits on the boat (see pictures). The boom is hanging out over the stern about 4 feet. I have only taken this boat out a couple of times and have only experienced light to moderate winds. In moderate winds it performs very well and is a lot of fun; I expect that it would also do well in stronger winds. However, I am having trouble in lighter winds. It feels like I have no control. It feels like because there is so much sail to the rear of the boat that it is pushing the rear of the boat around in light winds. The boat also slides sideways in light winds.

The other problem is that when the boat is in the water and unrigged I have a lot of sail and spars sitting in the water which become a bit heavy to hoist out to get underway.

I'm not sure if I'm making sense with all of this.

I would love to be able to find an Escape sail, mast, etc. to do this the right way. But I don't think that is going to happen. Financially, I am not able to do much of anything.

In the pictures you will notice that I have the sail adjusted quite high. I really don't like having to duck very much under the boom when sailing.

Can anyone suggest anything to help?

 

[L&VW]

It seems to me that when storm clouds approach on the horizon, you'll always be in winds that are too light to readily get back home!

My guess is the sail's "center of effort" isn't matched to the location of your daggerboard. Having an extreme "rake" to the mast may be to blame for the poor performance in light and variable winds.

Try moving the gooseneck all the way forward, and try those winds again. Alternatively, someone with a Mini-Fish might swap their smaller sail for yours. But if nothing has worked, you might want to take on the repairs to the disabled Sunfish—it'd be easier than trying to merge one design to another—and when you are finished, you'll have a real Sunfish!

 

[Alan S. Glos]

Another idea: Lower the boom about a foot by attaching the halyard higher up the upper boom (gaff). Then move the gooseneck aft about a foot. These two changes will move the center of effort of the sail forward and may balance better in a wider range of wind speed. It's an easy experiment. Let us know if it helps.

Alan Glos
Cazenovia, NY

 

[beldar boathead]

Alan is correct. You may need to give up some headroom in order for the boat to sail properly. Also in light air you are going to have a hard time sheeting out with all the friction that tube on the lower spar will cause. Try 2 or 3 one inch sections of tube or loops of duct tape instead of the largest ng tube.

I think you can get this rig to work with some experimentation.

Btw don't move the gooseneck forward as the other post suggests. Alan is right it needs to go back.

 

[cortezaero]

Thanks for the tips everyone!
I'm going to do some experimenting as soon as I can. Unfortunately, it may be awhile.
My busy time at work just HAS to coincide with great weather and great wind around here!