The Flying Lateen Rig was by no means designed as a racing rig. "Too much weight aloft"..."Too much windage"...."No jib therefore no slot"....we've heard them all!
The fact is, it doesn't fare too badly against traditional rigs (at least it didn't on this particular day). We put the Flying Lateen rig on a 14' Club FJ, a small centerboarder, commandeered a brand new traditionaly rigged FJ, talked a couple of local young sailing instructors into sailing them and had a fun day.
It was blowing pretty well, maybe 12 to 15 knots, and it all started with "our guy" capsizing. Oh well, no problem, upright again and back at it! The boys were such competitors, we had trouble convincing them that we didn't want strategizing, we wanted side by side sailing in order to get a comparative analysis of the two rigs. Amazing how difficult it is to sublimate the competitive juices of young people to the dry interests of science.
Anyway, the results were a bit surprising if not, by any means, conclusive. We assumed if we could stay close up wind that we'd have a chance downwind. Interestingly, we took the lead right away, partly because tacking is so quick and easy with no jib. After turning at the weather mark it was all over! Downwind (more, in this case, a quartering wind) there is no blanketing effect of the main on the jib (there IS no jib) and with the forward part of the sail pivoting to weather, keeping the CE closer in to the fore & aft centerline of the boat, we took off and finished with a healthy margin. Changing skippers for the second race, the results were almost identical.
In light boats with gusty winds, there are too many variables to draw any meaningful conclusions but it DID point out that the Flying Lateen rig doesn't necessarily have to apologize too profusely for sacrificing speed for simplicity.
Though doubtful that the Flying Lateen rig will gain fame as a racing rig, it DOES go fast and would be fun to race as a one design, especially single handed.
The fact is, it doesn't fare too badly against traditional rigs (at least it didn't on this particular day). We put the Flying Lateen rig on a 14' Club FJ, a small centerboarder, commandeered a brand new traditionaly rigged FJ, talked a couple of local young sailing instructors into sailing them and had a fun day.
It was blowing pretty well, maybe 12 to 15 knots, and it all started with "our guy" capsizing. Oh well, no problem, upright again and back at it! The boys were such competitors, we had trouble convincing them that we didn't want strategizing, we wanted side by side sailing in order to get a comparative analysis of the two rigs. Amazing how difficult it is to sublimate the competitive juices of young people to the dry interests of science.
Anyway, the results were a bit surprising if not, by any means, conclusive. We assumed if we could stay close up wind that we'd have a chance downwind. Interestingly, we took the lead right away, partly because tacking is so quick and easy with no jib. After turning at the weather mark it was all over! Downwind (more, in this case, a quartering wind) there is no blanketing effect of the main on the jib (there IS no jib) and with the forward part of the sail pivoting to weather, keeping the CE closer in to the fore & aft centerline of the boat, we took off and finished with a healthy margin. Changing skippers for the second race, the results were almost identical.
In light boats with gusty winds, there are too many variables to draw any meaningful conclusions but it DID point out that the Flying Lateen rig doesn't necessarily have to apologize too profusely for sacrificing speed for simplicity.
Though doubtful that the Flying Lateen rig will gain fame as a racing rig, it DOES go fast and would be fun to race as a one design, especially single handed.
