The International Canoe

That boat was designed in the twenties? That's incredible. I wonder how well it all worked. All he lacked was carbon fiber.
Can you tell me the name of the book those pictures are from?

The photos are on pages 310 and 311 in Yacht Racing - The Aerodynamics of Sails and Yacht Racing by Manfred Curry (I spelt it with an extra 'e' before). My copy was a 1930 reprint of the book first published in 1928. Good luck finding a copy. I bought mine in an antique shop in Cornwall 37 years ago for five shillings (now 25p). I suspect it might be worth a bit more now........!

George Gyngell

Oh, and did I mention the wing mast on page 80? This guy was at least 40 years ahead of anyone else, and carried out wind tunnel testing in the twenties.

Incredible!

Rod Mincher famously tried a swing rig in 1987. The tale of misfortune is classic reading and is somewhere on the web or in the Canoesletter archives. His problem was that the main leech would load up before the jib would fill and the boat would spin out and stay in irons. This could probably be solved by a bigger rudder, but I don't think they ever got that far.

There are other options like having a spar that allow the jib tack to be moved to weather. This was done on Sandy Douglas's Nymph when she sailed in England for the New York Cup. It has a number of problems, like how you maintain luff tension...

Most of these better ideas end up coming a cropper when the practicalities like rig tension, mast bend, and sail dynamics all come into play. Traditional cloth and masts end up being pretty highly developed and hard to overcome.
SHC

Whilst not actually disagreeing with that conclusion, I can't resist adding:-

... and your other boat is?...