We sailed a Prout 37 with an extra tall rig on an Atlantic circuit in 2004/5. It's a great down wind rig as you say. We set an asymmetric spinnaker on a pole or twin headsails on a Twistel rig.It's to reduce hobby-horsing, not pitchpoling. Cruising cats don't pitchpole that often. Prout started the idea, and Broadblues continue with it - aft set mast above the companionway bulkhead and twin headsails. A great rig plan for trade wind sailing, but adds to the cost with the twin headsails.
I should have thought the mast position is about where the designer wants the centre of effort of the sailplan(s) relative to the keel(s). Given that there is more trickery going on underwater on these boats with canting keels, dagger boards and twin rudders I can easily understand that the mast position becomes unusual. I always thought that one reason for keeping the mast aft on an ocean racer was to avoid burying the bow in extreme downwind sailing. It will be interesting to see what useful features trickle down to production boats in due course. I do think multiple forestays are a good thing but I'm less convinced by a square topped mainsail!
I always thought the Prout rig was for easy downwind sailing. There was a point in history when Prout catamarans had done more ocean miles between them than an other multihull. You still seem to find examples of them tucked away in far flung places. A very robust little catamaran
Are you sure? Move the centre of wind pressure aft, then there is a longer lever length for the bow to resist being pushed down.
It does seem like a poor attempt at a proper gaff!
It's the same as an aircraft with engines on the nose, wing or tail.
Not if you draw the vectors - buoyancy further forward has more leverage.
The Fjord 28 sail plan was not that unusual for that period. Late RORC rating rule and early IOR rating rule encouraged very large headsails and very short booms. The ¼ ton cup winner of 1969 Listang has a similar type rig. SailboatData.com - LISTANG Sailboat By today's standard the rig looks short and the forestay could have been moved even further forward. I remember racing against a Listang and they were fast for their size.
Yes, a fuller bow will resist immersion more strongly, but that isn't related to mast position.
it sounds like It would fail a sensible cruiser’s risk analysis. A high risk of something going wrong, with particularly bad consequences if they do go wrong. Imagine what a moment of inattention, a consequent crash jibe, would go to the boom, the back stay, the whole rig. It would also fail the test of requiring minimal effort and manpower. All in all, a non-starter for cruising. Foiling yachts, ditto.
That is true for our conditions and why historically boats designed and built in the UK and N Europe were strong on windward performance, it is not so true of the places where people are buying new boats, so offwind performance and outdoor living have higher priority.
I can understand that. Out here in Falmouth Harbour, Antigua, looking around the anchorage at the abundance of 40-60ft boats at anchor, many have adopted a solent rig with twin headsails furlers, us included. This is common to modern boat designs and older ones. Over here strong winds are the norm, although we have just had a few days of light wind, so tacking up the island would be done on the inner jib and reefed main. Not dissimilar to your tacking around the Thames Estuary.
bit surprised that you need to ask given the deep seated conservatism on this forum. YBW posters would prefer a long keel with attached rudder and a cutter rig. Anything else is modern flim flam!
As an ex owner of a Prout, I can certainly confim that it wasnt for upwind ability, of which they didnt have much.
Err!! Not all forumites.
It depends which model you had. The best performing upwind model of the smaller Prouts was the preElite Snowgoose 37. It had narrow hulls, a lot less weight and a single engine. We could out point any of the bilge keel cruisers in our local sailing club by a considerable margin but we had laminate sails and an 8ft taller than standard rig. The Prout 31 by comparison was really a motorsailor.