Thread: Maori canoe sails

Hi everybody
Not having much to do, so I decided to go with the flow and be more like a Maori, for which I would need need a canoe, a double one like a catamaran, so have enlarged my boat sail research to now include a crablclaw sail, I have test results of about six other types of sails with my favorite being a wingsail of a symmetrical shape, some models fixed and some collapsible.
I searched the web for a few weeks and came up with a starting design, and tried it out, with very good results.
However my design has shifted about somewhat and at this moment is very close to the sail shape that looks a little like a fish tail, it is made from a piece of 3mm hardboard and is some like 40 square inches and compares most favorably with some fore and aft Bermuda rigs in the 70 to 80 square inch range.
This style of rig works on a different principle, this being a vortex generated lift and to develop it further requires some considerable engineering. By this I mean mucking about in my workshop.
I have a great admiration for those early Maori sailors and their very clever seamanship