Over the years I’’ve built a handful of skin on frame upwind sailboats, and they worked fine, but at the end of the day I still think that plywood is the better material for the job because it’s stiffer, heavier, and you can build in watertight bulkheads. It’s also just a better match for the amount of complexity that any upwind sailing rig requires, because the time, weight, and cost savings of skin and frame aren’t nearly as prominent when you factor in the effort to build the rig. There’s also just that damn dagger board trunk and rudder which is a fairly fussy project in the skin on frame, and I HATE leeboards.
Fast forward to the present moment I’ve been working on this pedal drive canoe system which has both an integrated rudder system and a perfectly daggerboard sized hole in the bottom of the boat and suddenly the balance of consideration starts to shift again….
Speaking from experience, I’m not a big fan of lug sails or sprit sails on small skin on frame boat, and I don’t have the time to fuss with any of the fancier options, so I think I’m headed for the tried and true high peak lateen a in a 3 square meter size to match the current boat that I’m building.
The only problem is that I need to find someone to design the sail, so I can supply my students with sewing patterns. Does anyone know how a person goes about getting a sail designed or how much it costs? If I’m gonna do this, I’m gonna do it right.
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