Smish wrote:although I think I'm going to upgrade a few of the parts and make the setup a lot stiffer

Jury rig an aluminium pole as a boom would certainly stiffen it up but would it flatten you if a large gust hit, are the battens fixed or can they be removed and upgraded to something stiffer.
Looking again a gaff would stiffen it more but has nothing to attach to unless you extend the mast or lanteen rig.

bunyip wrote:

Smish wrote:although I think I'm going to upgrade a few of the parts and make the setup a lot stiffer

Jury rig an aluminium pole as a boom would certainly stiffen it up but would it flatten you if a large gust hit, are the battens fixed or can they be removed and upgraded to something stiffer.
Looking again a gaff would stiffen it more but has nothing to attach to unless you extend the mast or lanteen rig.

The sail is actually great, holds a nice shape even in light winds, the boom and batten are just right for the job, the issue I have is the mast step, they use a rubber Riley tiller extension universal joint which I immediately thought was going to be a problem. The uni joint needs to be able to swivel 360 degrees and also 180 degress horizontal/vertical/horizontal to stow the sail on the deck the problem with using rubber is that you also get lateral shift at the base which in very strong wind puts shrouds out of geometry and the whole thing falls over. This is probably a safety feature for a light sea kayak where if you do get knocked over you can still eskimo roll the kayak upright like I've seen on youtube.

I bought a Ronstan stainless steel uni joint which works the same as the rubber joint but will be rock solid laterally, however it will also put more pressure on the mast so that will need to be reinforced, I noticed in 25 knots it was flexing where the shrouds anchor to the mast. The main sheet attaches to the sail via a heavy duty bungee which is clever because if you get a sudden strong gust it opens the sail spilling wind, it also absorbs the shock when the sail jibes, gives it a nice soft feel to use and is all I need on the Viking - the floppy mast step needs to go.

I used to sail lasers which had a luff pocket arrangement, looking at the image I thought this was the same, now I understand the problem and your solution.

Nice sail mate. That type of sail is probably the best you can get
Andrew check this out
http://gnarlydognews.blogspot.com.au/20 ... e.html?m=1
I made something similar using PVC tube that made a difference to my DIY sail.

Any reason you didnt go for the next size up with the sail?