I saw three ships come sailing in

[pduggan]

Fore and aft sails (ie mainsails, jibs etc rather than spinnakers and square sails) are basically foils. If you could look down on a well-trimmed sail from its head, you'd see that it's shaped like the top surface of an aeroplane's wing. Now imagine that David's sails were aerofoils and you wanted to fly... [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_wink.gif[/img]

Peter</p>

Peat Stack or Pete's Tack?</p>

[Clements]

Peter, great diagram! What's difference between GAF and GUNTER (6 and 7)?

You try and make an animated GIF out of all of this.

[dk_art]

"Now imagine that David's sails were aerofoils and you wanted to fly..."

Well I imagine my airplane would be hurtling towards the earth in an uncontrolled spin ..... but it would make for one exciting picture [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_biggrin.gif[/img]

David K
www.dkingdesign.com

[pduggan]

Thanks for the compliment, John. But the more I think about the circumstances under which both sides of the sails may or may not be visible, the more I know I'll have to draw a few more points of sail and viewing angles yet!

The difference between gaff and gunter is basically in the angle of the yard (the spar supporting the top edge of the sail). Gunter sails have a higher peak than gaff sails, and are most often found on fairly small boats. You couldn't carry a topsail with a gunter rig because there wouldn't be room between the mast and the yard. Further possibilities include lug rig (of which there are actually several significant variants, all of which carry the lower end of the yard forward past the mast), and sprit rig (found on Thames barges and children's Optimist class dinghies). And many traditional work boats had boomless rigs so they could trice up the lower part of the sail (to clear the decks for work, slow down the boat, but keep the sail handy for when it was needed).

Modern sails are designed and 'tested' with sophisticated computer modelling programs, and some are even laminated up as 'one piece' 3D shapes. When Fly finally takes to the water again sometime in May, she'll be sporting a new Pentex Mylar mainsail, which is a good (but not particularly esoteric) club racing sail. And that new spinnaker with the Fly graphic, of course...

As for making an animated GIF out of all of this, who knows? (But I might try if David makes one of his hurtling, spinning airplane!) [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_rolleyes.gif[/img]



Peter</p>



Peat Stack or Pete's Tack?</p>

[dk_art]

Mr. Duggan ... you have yourself a deal [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_biggrin.gif[/img] [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_biggrin.gif[/img] [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_wink.gif[/img]

I will make a hurtling aiplane gif

David K
www.dkingdesign

[pduggan]

OK, Mr King! Now perhaps you or Mr Clements can set me a target, because my instructions - 'You try and make an animated GIF out of all of this' - seem a bit more vague than yours at the moment... [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_wink.gif[/img]

Or is that all I get to go on? [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_eek.gif[/img]

Peter</p>

Peat Stack or Pete's Tack?</p>

[pduggan]

'Stand up and be counted' time - thought 'parrells' (two 'l's) was wrong, checked with the wrong source, now checked with two better sources, should be a single 'l', so just uploaded corrected diagram above...

Now, about the GIF - how about a boat turning through 360&deg;, with sail trim to match? Could be a real challenge, but might add something to the thread if I can cope!



Peter</p>



Peat Stack or Pete's Tack?</p>

[dk_art]

I agree ... your end of the deal was a bit vague and probably quite a task if taken literally. Yes perhaps a simpler rotation of the boat showing what you mentioned would be nice. Or perhaps even more of a series of written pointers on more static views from several sides of the boat. Like start the gif on the side view and just point out important matters in a series of frames with just text and arrows. So 5 different frames would give 5 pointers ... just the frame times could be set to give people enough time to read them. This would be similar to the diagram you made but more to it. Anyway, it's up to you , but I feel a rotation of the boat in 3d with a 2d program will be quite a bit of work getting the frames drawn right. Would be easier in a 3d modelling app once the model had been made.

Anyway ... I look forward to the finished result no matter what it ends up being.

David K
www.dkingdesign.com

[joroho]

David,

For someone like me in the airline industry, I must say that I do NOT look forward to your hurtling airplane gif. But if you must, please be sure that the tail does not contain the globe image of a certain major carrier. [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_wink.gif[/img]

joroho

[dk_art]

Have no fear ... in my animation the tail section has already come loose and is no where in view. So you can rest assured that no labels will be visible [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_wink.gif[/img] ... so do not worry [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_biggrin.gif[/img]

David K
www.dkingdesign.com