: I thought about making a sail so I bought "The Sailmaker's
: Apprentice" by Emiliano Marino. This is the bible of sailmaking.
: There is not cheap way to reproduce what a competent sailmaker does. A lot of
: what results comes from the choice of fabric, the orientation of the weave
: and the shape of the panels,etc. When you use a piece of blue tarp you
: can't get any of that. The tarp material has no stretch. It may help to
: cut some of the outer edges with an outward curve called "roach"
: but where and how much is a matter of experience. Batwing sails are also
: battened. Again, where and how much?
: Balogh sails are low aspect performance sails. Tall and thin. Not a good
: place to start a sailmaking hobby.
: You need a sail that has a center of effort that has proper relationship to
: your daggerboard. If this ( called lead) isn't correct the boat will sail
: poorly
: and could even be unsafe. A sailboat that won't tack isn't worth a bother.
: The fact that you are using outriggers is another problem. Is it a monohull
: or a catamaran? I know they are set up differently but I don't know the
: specifics.
: What you are trying to do is rather complicated if you want something beyond
: just making the boat go. A lot of people do it and are happy with the
: result. But they don't know if they are getting full performance from
: their homebrew sail or not.
: I doubt that you can get enough off this website to get you thru' a high
: class sailmaking job.

Actually it would be a trimaran vs. a catamaran, three hulls vs. two. Catamarans are set up with a bigger lead of the sail vs. the center of resistance, combined area of the hull underwater and the board (rudder area normally not added). Trimarans are set up usually similiar to a monohull with perhaps slightly more lead.

Better to have too little lead than too much, sail area ahead of center of resistance, if the sail leads the C.R. too much you can have a boat that wants to head downwind in gusts which can get scary. Not likely dangerous in a kayak.

Bill H.