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Footy Design Basics
The idea here is to give the first time builder some idea of what the current thinking is within the Footy Community for sailboat design.
The rules stipulate the hull and ancillaries must fit within a box 12" long x 6" wide x 12" deep (305 x152 x 305mm) there are a couple of slots in the box fore & aft which were included to "grandfather" some existing designs when the rules were established. The most popular method by far for hull design is to place your hull lengthways in the box, making it wide at the stern and try to get the bow as buoyant as possible. The alternative to this is to go across the box on the diagonal or even across and up the box (double diagonal), both of these methods producing a narrower but longer hull form.
If you need advice upon a specific design detail for the Footy you are building or general advice as which way to go with your Footy project please feel free to contact me on peter.shepherd@sailfootyuk.com with any questions and I will endeavour to answer or put you in touch with an experienced skipper/builder who can.
Whichever way you decide to go the following design details apply.
Control Cassette
- The rudder & sails are generally controlled by small 9 gram servos most skippers mount these on a plate with the top of the servo above the deck line. the sails are generally controlled by a power arm which allows a small servo to be used by pulling the sheet close when the sail is close hauled and letting it out when it is released.
- receiver/transmitter, again most skippers use 2.4 GHz such as the Planet T5, the receiver is small and there is never any clash with frequencies. the receiver needs to be mounted just under the deck to give the aerial the best position to pick up the signal once again this can be fitted to the cassette plate
- batteries small hump packs (400mAh) are used either 4.8V or 6V the latter giving longer sailing times but weighing more.
- include some form of switch which can be accessed without the need to remove the cassette plate, this can then be turned off between races saving valuable battery life.
See Peter Jacksons Cassette Report for a how to.
Sails
- the balanced swing rig - Simple soft sails for small rigs As an alternative to cutting panels and forming seams in drawing
film, very adequate small sails can be made using soft sail material just folded over to form double sided sails. These are ideal
for the smallest models like Footy. See Charles Smith Soft Sail Report for a how to.
- the McRig sails - the Una rig (or McRig) lends itself perfectly for small sailing yachts such as the Footy, with it's simple components and ease of set up it is a popular rig set up, from which good results can be obtained. See the report by Scott Wallis, Make Simple McRig Sails for a how to..
The rules stipulate the hull and ancillaries must fit within a box 12" long x 6" wide x 12" deep (305 x152 x 305mm) there are a couple of slots in the box fore & aft which were included to "grandfather" some existing designs when the rules were established. The most popular method by far for hull design is to place your hull lengthways in the box, making it wide at the stern and try to get the bow as buoyant as possible. The alternative to this is to go across the box on the diagonal or even across and up the box (double diagonal), both of these methods producing a narrower but longer hull form.
If you need advice upon a specific design detail for the Footy you are building or general advice as which way to go with your Footy project please feel free to contact me on peter.shepherd@sailfootyuk.com with any questions and I will endeavour to answer or put you in touch with an experienced skipper/builder who can.
Whichever way you decide to go the following design details apply.
Control Cassette
- The rudder & sails are generally controlled by small 9 gram servos most skippers mount these on a plate with the top of the servo above the deck line. the sails are generally controlled by a power arm which allows a small servo to be used by pulling the sheet close when the sail is close hauled and letting it out when it is released.
- receiver/transmitter, again most skippers use 2.4 GHz such as the Planet T5, the receiver is small and there is never any clash with frequencies. the receiver needs to be mounted just under the deck to give the aerial the best position to pick up the signal once again this can be fitted to the cassette plate
- batteries small hump packs (400mAh) are used either 4.8V or 6V the latter giving longer sailing times but weighing more.
- include some form of switch which can be accessed without the need to remove the cassette plate, this can then be turned off between races saving valuable battery life.
See Peter Jacksons Cassette Report for a how to.
Sails
- the balanced swing rig - Simple soft sails for small rigs As an alternative to cutting panels and forming seams in drawing
film, very adequate small sails can be made using soft sail material just folded over to form double sided sails. These are ideal
for the smallest models like Footy. See Charles Smith Soft Sail Report for a how to.
- the McRig sails - the Una rig (or McRig) lends itself perfectly for small sailing yachts such as the Footy, with it's simple components and ease of set up it is a popular rig set up, from which good results can be obtained. See the report by Scott Wallis, Make Simple McRig Sails for a how to..
- Alp Yachts - Footy Una Rig
there is a complete design by Marcus Wahlin of Alp Yachts which is available for download at a cost of CHF5.00
for the link click here
for the link click here
Trevor Thomas brought this interesting breakback swing rig sail to this months SMFL meeting, unfortunately the winds were to light for a proper test. The sail was made using details from an article by Niel Goodrich.
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