In one caption Bill has published the following statement:
F3 177 fitted with the dog leg semi enclosed crosstube. The frame and sail can be set up in either configuration, straight exposed crosstube or pelicanised with the dog leg spar.
I enjoy Bill's word "pelicanised".
I openly asked him for a link to some image that show full well the form of his "dog leg" semi-enclosed crosstube. I have yet only seen the exposed section while the dog-leg section stays covered up. Does anyone have a photo of the bare dog-leg spar? TIA
The following clip is the closest that I have found of Bill Pain's exploration:
- DogLegSparClipReBillPainPelicanization.jpg (42.7 KiB) Viewed 589 times
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The spar is in axial compression. Historically the highly used spar is kept straight with designers desiring to keep the spar "in column" to address resistance to buckling under the axial compression. So, the dog-leg treatment is somewhat at odds to the long-lived trend for the involved spar. What might be the weight cost for the exploration? What trades are being chosen?
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Posted: Tue Oct 13, 2026 8:06 pm