Sail structure
AssigneeTeam New Zealand Limited
InventorStephen James COLLIE
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Disclosed is a sail comprising a head, a tack, and a luff extending between the head and the tack; a luff region extending along the luff; wherein the luff region has a significantly higher degree of elasticity compared to the average elasticity of a remainder of the sail. Also disclosed is a method of making a sail comprising laying out material to form the sail; arranging material in a luff region of the sail and in the remainder of the sail such that in the direction of the luff, the luff region has a higher degree of elasticity compared to the remainder of the sail; curing or sewing the sail to form a cohesive structure.
Claims30
A sail, comprising,
- a head,
- a tack,
- a luff extending between the head and the tack;
- and
- a luff region extending along the luff;
- wherein the luff region has a higher degree of elasticity compared to a remainder of the sail.
A sails comprising:
- a head and a tack;
- a luff edge extending between the head and the tack;
- and
- a luff region comprising the luff edge and at least a portion of the sail adjacent the luff edge;
- wherein a degree of elasticity of the luff region and a degree of elasticity of a region of the sail adjacent the luff region are configured such that, when the sail is mounted to a sailing boat, tensioning the luff region assists to flatten the sail to a greater extent than would be achievable if the luff was of equivalent stiffness to a remainder of the sail.
A method of making a sail comprising the steps of:
- laying out material to form the sail;
- arranging material in a luff region of the sail and in a remainder of the sail such that in a direction of the luff, the luff region has a higher degree of elasticity compared to the remainder of the sail;
- and
- curing or sewing the sail to form a cohesive structure.
A method of making a sail having a luff region, wherein in a direction along a luff of the sail, the luff region has a higher degree of elasticity than a remainder of the sail.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.