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The Mysterious Wing Sail and the Atlantic Passage....

Posted: Thu May 03, 2018 4:19 pm
by wingsail
...That the Yachting press in the UK refused to acknowledge. I am trying to find from pre internet days the story about a man who put a solid wingsail with an adjustable leading thin foil to create extra lift by creating a slot on a rotating mast ( no I am not talking about an Aerorig) on a Prout , I think a 37 but cannot be certain . It was controlled by one of the earliest laptops you could have bought. It would feather smooth and in a bad storm he would hove to easily and quietly. For running he had a cruising spinnaker of some kind to use. This was half a lifetime ago and my memory only shows short images of being in the upper floor on the London Boat Show in earls court somewhere in the 1980s . I was talking all too briefly to a man in his own tiny stall who, both inventor and sailor, to prove that soft , flexible and costly self destructive nylon sails were as outdated as a steam engine on a modern container ship , had designed built and constructed this modern form of propulsion and then to prove the concept sailed to the Canaries , left for the Caribbean , hit the edge of a tropical cyclone , then sailed to Bermuda , then back to the UK . And then...this incredible self funded solo sailor tried to publish this amazing story via the UK yachting press who immediately...ignored him , completely, and refused to even mention it. His theory , if I recall right , was that the advertisers in the magazines paid for slots so sailmaker mast and rig and boatbuilding mafia did not want us poor ignorant customers made aware that most of their expensive inefficient wares were unnecessary....! Now whether you beleived him or not , he was still decades ahead of his time and now look at what is appearing in front of our eyes....well how about that , solid or flexible wingsails. I wish now I had paid more attention and kept one of his leaflets. My loss. Does anyone in the Prout World know the story and please can you add any more details? Yours forever grateful.