The DynaRig is a conceptualization of a

square-rigged Square rig is a generic type of sail and rigging arrangement in which the primary driving sails are carried on horizontal spars which are perpendicular, or square, to the keel of the vessel and to the masts. These spars are called ''yards'' and ...

form of

rigging Rigging comprises the system of ropes, cables and chains, which support a sailing ship or sail boat's masts—''standing rigging'', including shrouds and stays—and which adjust the position of the vessel's sails and spars to which they are ...

, designed in the 1960s by the German engineer Wilhelm Prölß. While having the appearance of the rigging of a 19th-century

clipper ship A clipper was a type of mid-19th-century Merchant ship, merchant Sailing ship, sailing vessel, designed for speed. Clippers were generally narrow for their length, small by later 19th century standards, could carry limited bulk freight, and had ...

, it was not actually implemented on a sailing vessel until several decades after its design because of a lack of adequate construction materials. It was fitted to one of the world's largest yachts, the '' Maltese Falcon''. When the original patent rights and residual technology were purchased from the German government by an American investor in 2001, it was renamed the Falcon rig. The DynaRig, along with the original, "DynaSchiff", is a trademarked name. The original concept by Prölß was for a combined rig and hull with extremely high efficiency of operation and the use of wind power to propel a large vessel across an open body of water. The modern controller for the entire ship's rig consists of a single panel operated by a single person. The masts are freestanding, the curved yards being attached rigidly to the masts. To adjust the angle of the sails, the entire mast rotates in place. When fully deployed, the sails on each mast have no gaps between them, creating a single panel to capture the wind. It is estimated to have twice the efficiency of a traditional square rig. The design for the rig of ''Maltese Falcon'' was formalised and tested by Dutch naval architects Dykstra Naval Architects, and engineered and built by Insensys Ltd. on the premises of

Perini Navi Perini Navi is an Italian shipyard based in Viareggio, Tuscany, Italy. Founded in 1983 by Fabio Perini, who pioneered automation and furling systems in large sailing yachts. In December 2021 Perini Navi company has been acquired by the Italian pu ...

in Istanbul. In 2016 a similar rig designed and engineered by the same team was built b
Magma Structures
in Portsmouth and fitted to the 106 m vessel ''

Black Pearl The ''Black Pearl'' (formerly known as the ''Wicked Wench'') is a fictional ship in the ''Pirates of the Caribbean'' film series. In the screenplay, the ''Black Pearl'' is easily recognized by her distinctive black hull and sails. Captained by ...

'' built by Dutch shipyard

Oceanco Oceanco is a privately owned custom yacht builder, based in the Netherlands, that builds full displacement yachts in the range since 1987. It is owned by Mohammed Al Barwani, an Omani billionaire. History Oceanco came into existence in 1987, wh ...

in Alblasserdam and designed by Italian Nuvolari Lenard. Naval Architecture and DynaRig design of Black Pearl was done by Dykstra Naval Architects.

References

{{reflist Sailing rigs and rigging German inventions 1960s introductions 1960s in West Germany