NavList:
A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
Crab claw sails
From: John Huth
Date: 2010 May 12, 18:16 -0400
From: John Huth
Date: 2010 May 12, 18:16 -0400
I'm beginning to answer my own question on Polynesian crab claw sails. Evidently an aerodynamics expert has tested the lift capabilities of the crab claw versus Bermuda at varying angles and finds the crab claw more effective as one gets closer to a reach.
I'm trying to dig up the original article quoted at the above blog. I have to think through the explanation in terms of the fluid dynamics, but it's a start.
John H.