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The crab claw sail is a fore-and-aft triangular sail with spars along upper and lower edges. The crab claw sail was first developed by the Austronesian peoples by at least 2000 BCE. It is used in many traditional Austronesian cultures in Island Southeast Asia , Micronesia , Island Melanesia , Polynesia , and Madagascar .
A mast-aft rig is a sailboat sail-plan that uses a single mast set in the aft half of the hull. The mast supports fore-sails that may consist of a single jib, multiple staysails, or a crab claw sail. The mainsail is either small or completely absent. Mast-aft rigs are uncommon, but are found on a few custom, and production sailboats. [1]
Fore-and-aft rigged sails include staysails, Bermuda rigged sails, gaff rigged sails, gaff sails, gunter rig, lateen sails, lug sails, tanja sails, the spanker sail on a square rig, and crab claw sails. Fore-and-aft rigs include: Rigs with one mast: the proa, the catboat, the sloop, the cutter; Rigs with two masts: the ketch, the yawl
Another evolution of the basic crab claw sail is the conversion of the upper spar into a fixed mast. In Polynesia, this gave the sail more height while also making it narrower, giving it a shape reminiscent of crab pincers (hence "crab claw" sail). This was also usually accompanied by the lower spar becoming more curved.
The crab claw configuration used on these vessels is a low-stress rig, which can be built with simple tools and low-tech materials, but it is extremely fast. On a beam reach, it may be the fastest simple rig. Another evolution of the basic crab claw sail is the conversion of the upper spar into a fixed mast.
Instead it has a "crab claw" sail, [1] and is further controlled by the skillful use of fore and aft trim—moving the boat's balance point, that is the center of resistance relative to the center of effort—to control her heading. [1] [3] This is essentially like a wind surfer. See Sail twist.
Modern sailing outrigger canoes are usually made from glass-reinforced and carbon fiber-reinforced polymer, with sails made from Dacron and Kevlar. Hōkūleʻa is a modern interpretation of a Polynesian voyaging canoe. It is made from modern materials such as fibreglass, plywood, resin glue, terylene sails and ropes with modern fittings and ...
In Island Southeast Asia, these developed into double outriggers on each side that provided greater stability. The triangular crab claw sails also later developed into square or rectangular tanja sails, which like crab claw sails, had booms spanning the upper and lower edges. Fixed masts also developed later in both Southeast Asia (usually as ...