Professional BoatBuilder - December-January 2018

50 PROFESSIONAL BOATBUILDER

DESIGN: Hybrid Wing

wings can’t weathervane because

they con ict with the rigging.

That makes them hopelessly

impractical. Nobody’s ever going

to put one on a recreational

boat.  is one you can just leave

it up, let it weathervane, and

walk away.”

Previous fully rotating rigs

have required unstayed “free-

standing” masts with generous

sectional dimensions. Because

the hybrid wing’s D-spar is

already fat, it is adaptable for freestand-

ing applications especially in mono-

hulls where initial stability is not so

extreme as in multihulls.

“We think we really have something

here that can make a di erence in sail-

ing’s future,” says Gonzalez. “And inci-

dentally, the wing is only one part of

what we’re doing.”

down completely and just sail on the

rigid wing alone. Of course, you can

also set headsails when needed, but

the crux is this: When you’re not sail-

ing, you don’t have to take the whole

thing down with a crane and put it in a

warehouse, or haul the boats every

night and capsize them on land just to

secure the wing to a tie-down.  ose

rigging but at the top. “And that’s just

the beginning,” he says. “It also can

spread a so mainsail.”

“ e square-top blade thing I saw

when he sailed in?” I ask.

“Right. He had it reefed then, but

when hoisted to the top, it more than

doubles the area.”

For the  rst time I allow myself to

seriously contemplate the rami ca-

tions of a reefable wing sail.

Gonzalez: “ at’s where the hybrid

comes in. You know how the America’s

Cup boats have rigid wings with rigid

elements that are like  aps on an air-

plane?  ey can be controlled inde-

pendently, but you can’t get rid of

them. Well, this is a rigid wing with a

so element that you can get rid of.

When the wind really blows, you can

reef the so element partway, or take it

Far left—Tommy Gonzalez,

founder of Fast Forward Compos-

ites, is an accomplished multihull

sailor and the originator of the

hybrid wing sail concept.

Left—The shrouds supporting the

hybrid wing run to a triangular cap

 tted with a bearing. With the soft

sail down, the rigid wing section

can weathervane unimpeded

inside the stays, which means the

rig can be depowered without

removing the rigid element from

the boat.

Left—The rigid wing’s carbon  ber D-spar serves as the columnar support for the rig. Here, its lower end is stepped on a bearing

on the aka. Right—The triangular cap has been removed, and the upper bearing is covered for over-the-road transportation. The

halyard running inside the wing is visible through the clear-plastic covering.

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