Thanks for starting this thread, I have lots of questions but I am leaving in a couple days for 3-4 months offshore, so just replying to subscribe and bookmark this thread for later....
Would love to hear your thoughts on the wing vs junk, differences in sailing performance and handling.
Good, I'm glad that someone on this forum is an offshore mariner. You're my target audience - even if there's only one of you!
Handling
Junk rig One-Oh-One first of all.
There are four main running lines:
1. The halyard. The whole sail bundle is heavy, so it's usual to use a multi-part halyard. I find it most efficient to use a 3:1 halyard and an ARCO two speed self-tailer, using 14:1 most of the time, and 30:1 for shaking out a reef when running in a strong breeze (one of the advantages of JR - no need to round up to hoist or lower the sail).
2. The sheet. This does the job of the clew pennants on a bermudan rig, as well as the trimming of the sail. A single sheet going to 6 points (6 battens) is common; but I use an upper and lower sheet on my present sail, for better control of twist.
3. The yard hauling parrel (YHP). This pulls the yard into towards the mast, and is necessary because the yard changes its angle in the first part of the hoist. Otherwise, a traveller could be used. This line is heavily loaded on a big rig.
4. The luff hauling parrel (LHP) or throat hauling parrel (THP). This pulls the luff back, peaking up the yard and taking the creases out of the sail.
Additionally,
5. downhauls for the lower battens are not generally needed.
Now as this applies to the soft wing sail:
1. The halyard. No difference.
2. The sheet. The use of an upper and lower sheet becomes more important, as the thicker sail will develop diagonal creases around the luff if allowed to twist. Also, the soft wing sail must be sheeted closer than JR, because of the camber. Yet the upper parts of the sheet are pulling steeply downwards; there is an argument for putting the upper sheet onto a track car and hauling it to weather, when on the wind.
3. If there is a short yard, at the same angle as the battens to the horizontal (my proposal for a new rig), or if there is some form of headboard that dispenses with the yard (my old rig), then the YHP is not needed.
4. The LHP is actually a good way of shaping up the sail. In my old rig, I attempted to make each batten butt against the mast, with a semicircular plastic bearing. This reasoning is foiled by a) the taper in the mast and b) the inevitable bend in the mast. The plastic bearings in the lower part of the sail could be observed to float clear of the mast, contributing nothing. The leech would then go slack. In contrast, a LHP could be used to haul the luff back and straighten the leech, independent of whether the mast was bending; or whether the head of the sail was on the upper, smaller diameter of the mast, or the lower, larger diameter of the mast, when reefed.
5. Downhauls are needed for the lower battens, to keep the luff in shape. It is convenient to fit separate downhauls for reefs 1, 2, and 3, and then to span downhauls together for the less frequently used reefs 4 & 5. The LHP will haul down reefs 6, 7 & 8.
Soft wing sail operation
To make sail: let go the sheet and all the downhauls. Haul on the halyard (very little tension required in the luff, so don't pull too hard). Trim the sheet. Put a little tension onto the LHP to shape up the sail.
To furl the sail: let go the halyard. The whole sail will clatter down into the lazyjacks. Take in the sheet(s).
To take a reef: ease the halyard a little more than will bring the first batten down to the "boom" (which in reality is just another batten). Then take in and secure the downhaul, and set up the halyard against it (very little tension required). Put a little tension onto the LHP to shape up the sail. Then re-trim the sheet(s). A 15 second procedure for the first reef on the mizzen of my old rig.
To shake out a reef: ease the sheet(s), cast off the downhaul, haul on the halyard, put a little tension onto the LHP to shape up the sail, re-trim the sheet.
To tack: put the helm down. The rig is self-tacking.
To gybe: put the helm up until the boat is nearly on a beam reach on the other gybe, and let the sail whirl across. Yes, really. It's easy and safe that way. You can of course haul the sheet in if you need the exercise, or are in confined waters.
Performance
That's a difficult question to give a straight answer to. My boat is not like any other, so no trial horse is available. She's a heavy, shoal draught cruiser with bilge-boards, and windward performance is sacrificed to other more worthwhile attributes such as being able to go onto the beach to repair, scrub and paint, and to go into the gunkholes that other cruisers can't. I can say, though, that she's faster and safer downwind than she would be with an external keel, and faster downwind with any of my rigs than any similar bermudan rigged boat.
I changed from a single JR to ketch rig with wing sails, and back to single JR, and that's comparing oranges to apples.
A two masted JR is not so effective as a single JR, so I was reluctant to go that way. I reckon the ketch with wing sails to be equivalent in performance to my current single JR, which is not as fast as my first JR, but is easier to manage. I reckon that a single soft wing sail would be rather more effective to windward than the ketch wingsail rig, but would suffer from weather helm off the wind, like many cat boats. Nonetheless, I'd go it a go, if only I didn't have to get a new, taller mast, which would cost more than I'm prepared to spend (a new hybrid mizzen mast wouldn't cost too much).
So the choice of number of masts is for the owner to make.
