Rigging a Falcon Sail at the Launch Site
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- čas přidán 18. 08. 2014
- This video shows how you can quickly rig your Falcon Sail at the Launch site. It takes about 2 minutes and is solid as a rock.
Get your Falcon Sail here
www.falconsails.com
RiggingAtTheLaunchSiteP8130083.MOV - Sport
Very good
Don't those rear stays
limit the travel of the boom?
You can move the back stay deck anchor points forward and increase your boom freedom. This boat was rigged a long time ago based on our old / more conservative deck layout template. Our latest deck layout template has moved the standing line anchor points forward about 10 degrees.
Aside from that, there is a limit on how far the boom can travel and there is also a limit on how far you want the boom to travel. This is exactly like a conventional sail boat. If you lower the standing line anchor points on the mast to keep them 100% out of the way of the boom, your mast will not be properly supported. There are a few things to say about this. #1 As this kayak sail is rigged, the boom has enough freedom to be exactly where you want it to be 90%+ amount of the time. The few times it may not be perfect, it is really close & is pretty much a non issue. If you have a rig that allows you to let the boom go beyond 90 degrees, and maybe stop at 120 degrees due to a tangled line or bad choice, you can have a lot of healing force, with greatly diminished propulsion. Lack of propulsion is a big problem as this is what you need to have a good solid brace.
If you design your rig around 1 issue like 100% boom freedom, you have to live with the downsides of this all the time. Lowering the anchor points on the mast to to gain boom freedom will lead to a very poorly supported mast, and also a lot of excessive forces on the deck of your kayak, and all the lines and anchor points. Basically the mast will not stand solidly or reliably. It can also lead to a mast bending and breaking. Due to well balanced geometry, carbon fiber, and proper reinforcements, Falcon Sail masts never bend and never break. They barely even flex.
The other issue is some people will let a sail weather vane thinking it is a proper technique for depowering but is is actually very bad form that is known to be a problem for many reasons. Just because the sail is weathervaning does not mean your sail is down. If you do not feel safe, weathervaning your sail is dangerous, and gives people a false sense of security. And at the same time you have to live with the the downside of a poorly designed rig that is weak and flexible and unpredictable 100% of the time.
Here are some videos that show this boat in big wind conditions. Notice how solid the Falcon Sail rig is. One of the videos talks about how to depower on big tail wind day.
czcams.com/video/ysVTtX4H8B0/video.html
czcams.com/video/fP7AxiwKthQ/video.html
Here is a link to a play list of 72 videos of Falcon Sail customers enjoying their rigs. You will see there is plenty of boom freedom.
czcams.com/play/PLsYw0pX3rPQlTlNwXHXEjUIUJKSzb-ih6.html
Last but not least, if you are still concerned about this, Falcon Sails has a mast extension that is made for pushing the entire sail above the standing line and gives 100% boom freedom. We are always happy to give our customers what they want, but mention this option last because we think it is a bad idea.
That's a really good answer to something I was thinking about too. I had a dinghy lateen-rig conversion (lee boards) and in the instructions it recommended weather-vaning to depower the sail. It's true it does de-power it and very very quiclky (let go of the sheet) but you have a very large sail up and ready flapping downwind able to swing back over the boat whenever the wind decides.The reason it could do this was there were no rear stays. And yes, it did create a lot of stress on the mast and the associated aluminium frame. I thought it needed stays myself.There was a halyard of course which could have been lowered but this was usually tied off on the bottom of the mast - as per the instructions. So you only had weather-vaning as a way of stopping the whole thing from snapping off in a gust.Your sail looks superbly put together and your answers to questions demonstrate that you've thought through and tested all the various issues. I'd love one of your sails - but I've only got space for an inflatable kayak - can yours be fitted to one of these? I see inflatable kayaks everywhere on the rivers, lakes and sea here in the UK.
Hello Patrick, very nice.....does this hull have the folding, internal deck support leg you have mentioned elsewhere?
Yes it does. Almost all kayaks with Falcon Sails on them have the internal deck strut. It is a good thing to install if you can. If you can not, there are always alternatives.
Hello Patrick, so my next question is, I am having Rockpool build me a Taran and if I have the Falcon mast step bracket installed as part of the build and I am having Stellar footplates installed, can I or should I have the under deck folding support leg installed? I am already going to have them do the deck reinforcement option....
I am sorry, if this sounds so lame...just trying to have it done correctly from the factory.... I think I want to have the Falcon sail rig on my Taran.
The Taran will for sure have room for our deck support strut and should have one installed. Do not forget it folds out of the way very easily for packing your boat. The mast base plate along with the deck support strut will be way far ahead of the foot plates. For myself at 68 inches tall and a 18 foot kayak, my mast base and deck support strut are 85 inches in front of my seat back band. The foot braces are about half of that distance.
If you need help deciding a location for your mast, send me an email or call our shop with the contact info on this web page.
www.falconsails.com/contact.php
Rockpool did some custom rigging on a Taran for another customer of Falcon Sails, so they should have some notes on this. I have some auto cad files of the deck for that boat, so we can make a fairly accurate adapter block for you to match the peaked deck with the flat falcon deck plate.
Here are some pictures of the rigging job I did on one of my personal kayaks.
You can see my first expedition rigging job here.
www.falconsails.com/expeditionrig/
It is way over kill for almost everybody. It exceeds the strength of 99% of all other boats. My main goal was to come up with the most solid rigging job possible for a reasonable weight as part of our process of learning. My next boat was done much better, and I can provide some notes on this for you. The Rock Pool Kayaks are very solid and do well without much extra reinforcement. As a matter of fact, all they probably ever need is a easy to apply hull reinforcement patch that comes standard with all Falcon Sail kits. The most solid way to reinforce your deck is to epoxy laminate some Okoume plywood to the mast area. It weighs only a few ounces. The thickness makes it much more effective than a few more layers of fiberglass.
If I where sending you an email, I would attach some pictures for you. Communicating via a comments on youtube does not have an option for this.
You can learn a bit more about Falcon Sails rigs here.
www.falconsails.com/whybuyafalcon/
The best thing to do as we chat about rigging your boat is to do it on the phone or by email so I can keep records on our conversations. Right now I do not even know how "Sorry DangDog" is.
Our contact information is on this web page.
www.falconsails.com/contact.php
Patrick,
You are the man! Thank you....I'm on my way out of town now.....will re-read this tomorrow and make sure I communicate with David McPherson and Mike (?) and yes, I will take you up on your tech specs offer soon. Thank you so much Sir. Terry
I want one but $1000 Canadian is steep.