Junk Rig Refinements

[micah719]

The junk rig appeals to me for many reasons and to try and improve on it should be undertaken with great care. This isn't a thread to sell the rig, or defend it, just to ask questions and hopefully get some thoughtful answers, hopefully from folks who actually use it.

The boat I have in mind is a modified sharpie hull, long, low and lean, so the JR appeals for its low heeling moment. I'm considering a schooner junk rig, mainly for the balance and controllability of it when sailing from inside a buttoned up cabin such as that on Matt Layden's PARADOX. I like the high peaked rig of user Bataan's BERTIE, but there is one niggly little thing I am curious about:

Q: When reefed down for a gale, the part of the junk sail exposed is the least sheeted portion, that is, the top battens/yard. As I would be using freestanding masts with no headsails and unlikely to go to the dangerous trouble of setting new sails, am I justified in wanting to sheet the junk sail including the yard, or have I missed something?

Any other JR questions welcome; the Chinese have used the rig for so long that they should have refined it to perfection (in context) already, but form follows function and the function depends on the user and we aren't all thinking of South China Sea in stoutly built beamy flatbottom wooden cargo haulers.

 

[garydierking]

The experts hang out in these two places:
http://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/junkrig/info
http://www.junkrigassociation.org/technical_forum

 

[BATAAN]

The junk rig appeals to me for many reasons and to try and improve on it should be undertaken with great care. This isn't a thread to sell the rig, or defend it, just to ask questions and hopefully get some thoughtful answers, hopefully from folks who actually use it.

The boat I have in mind is a modified sharpie hull, long, low and lean, so the JR appeals for its low heeling moment. I'm considering a schooner junk rig, mainly for the balance and controllability of it when sailing from inside a buttoned up cabin such as that on Matt Layden's PARADOX. I like the high peaked rig of user Bataan's BERTIE, but there is one niggly little thing I am curious about:

Q: When reefed down for a gale, the part of the junk sail exposed is the least sheeted portion, that is, the top battens/yard. As I would be using freestanding masts with no headsails and unlikely to go to the dangerous trouble of setting new sails, am I justified in wanting to sheet the junk sail including the yard, or have I missed something?

Any other JR questions welcome; the Chinese have used the rig for so long that they should have refined it to perfection (in context) already, but form follows function and the function depends on the user and we aren't all thinking of South China Sea in stoutly built beamy flatbottom wooden cargo haulers.

BERTIE's main is sheeted to all battens excepting the top one and the yard. Full reefing shows the top two panels so the upper sheet is at the bottom of that section. It is important to have a reefing grommet just aft of the lazy jacks to tie the bundle together so you don't get a 'fan-up' when deeply reefed. JR is quite heavy so putting it on something with limited stability like a Sharpie should be done with care and forethought and very light weight sail cloth, battens and mast since the weight aloft is a burden on a long narrow boat.

 

[micah719]

Thanks for the thoughtful response and the pics, and sorry for not posting my reply sooner. Yes, topside weight looms large whenever I think of the sharpie design. The advantages a skinny boat would bring me are shrinking to nothing every time I game it out in my head and on paper. I've purloined the offset table and lines of Spray that you posted some time back, and would prefer going the time-tested comfortable Spray way rather than experiment with something that even at best would be a tricky boat to live with. I don't suppose you'd consider selling Bertie to me? (ducks spanner, flees)

 

[pdwiley]

JR is quite heavy so putting it on something with limited stability like a Sharpie should be done with care and forethought and very light weight sail cloth, battens and mast since the weight aloft is a burden on a long narrow boat.

It's been done. Just buy a set of plans......

http://www.thomasecolvin.com/sharpies.htm

PDW

 

[BATAAN]

It's been done. Just buy a set of plans......

http://www.thomasecolvin.com/sharpies.htm

PDW

Yup. Colvin's designs are excellent.
Remember, FOLLOW THE PLANS and don't try to improve other than using modern blocks and line which are much lighter and stronger than wooden blocks and manila or even dacron.
BERTIE has no more wooden blocks as everything is either Harken, Schaefer or the 3 solid steel logging blocks for the main halyard block and the topping lift upper masthead blocks, all with their very high static loads, but a Sharpie would not need these and lightweight racing hardware attached with strops made of high-tech line should give the smallest profile with lower windage as well as lower weight aloft, making the CR quite attractive for that type of vessel.