Junk Rigged Trimaran

Since you are being personal, do you mind telling us what prejudice and outdated opinion you found?

It's not prejudiced and outdated to refer to posts on the junk rig association forum where owners of cambered junk sails speak about their boat being 10% slower than sisterships, as in the case of Marie G.

It's not prejudiced and outdated to quote independent boat-on-boat testing between a sloop and a split junk that shows that the junk is clearly slower upwind and reaching.

It's not outdated and prejudiced to note that in the 2015 Round the Island race, the split junk Splinter 21 Amiina finished in 10h 46m 36s - over 3/4 of an hour behind the slowest of the three conventional Splinter 21s in the race, and a huge 74 minutes behind the fastest! So what gives - are split junks faster rigs sailed by really bad sailors, or are they slower rigs?

It's not outdated and prejudiced to look up the article you posted, and see not a single piece of OBJECTIVE information that proves the claims that junk is faster. It is simple to (for example) look at the pic on page 26 of that report and see that contrary to the claims, the conventional sloops DO have their sails "presenting a useful surface to the wind". It's also not prejudiced to think that someone who is "terrified" sailing a small boat in an event that 10,000 people do each year may not be a suitable objective source of information!

It's not outdated and prejudiced to say that some of the world's greatest aerodynamicists, sailors and designers are not fools or ******, and that if the junk rig was faster they would use it.

It's not outdated and prejudiced to see that some of the 'racing junk' fans are comparing the performance of their boat under full sail to conventional sloops using small heavy-air jibs in light winds; see for example p 14 here

https://jra.wildapricot.org/Resources/Documents/Arne%20Kverneland's%20files/20131017%20Fr%C3%B8ken%20S%C3%B8rensen,%20part%20II.%20short%20photo%20article%20by%20Arne%20Kverneland,%20pdf%20.pdf

nor to note that many of the boats racing against this split junk are carrying under-sized cruising sails, as in this pic here;

http://l7.alamy.com/zooms/618fca0e9...ce-2009-westerley-longbow-junk-rig-bc8d24.jpg


The two identifiable sloops near the split junk rigged Westerly Longbow are both carrying small jibs. Both of them beat the junk rig over the line. The standard version of the Westerly Longbow is rated 10m slower than the boat with the sail number 9611Y - but 9611Y, which is carrying a smaller than usual jib in light winds, finished 110 minutes ahead of the jung-rigged Longbow! So how is that evidence that the junk rig is faster, as its owner claims?

 

Many things look good but on closer inspection have limited benefits, but they have great followings. The Junk Sail debate reminds me of the WishBone Sailing Rig debate. Never ends, but the fact is must people recognize it is not worth the trouble. Now if you combine a tri, aero junk sails, solar panels and A mast then you might make it to Popular Mechanics magazine...