Good summary. Concerning the (perhaps somewhat surprising) negliable performance loss on the ”bad tack”, junk rig enthusiast Arne Kverneland made an interesting speculation on the phenomena - when the sail is in the ”bad tack” that also means that the mast will be somewhat embedded in the camber of the sail and therefore subject to less wind drag and turbulence and that this makes up for the impaired shape of the sail. I think that is a plausible theory. Anyway - I love the work if the JRA! I’ve learned so much from from both the website as well as the youtube channel.
Yes that hypothesis sounds possible, and a soft wing sail that surrounds and streamlines the mast has only "good" tacks. What's lacking from other Western soft wingsails is the reefing and control of the junk sheeting. Combining both would seem to give the best of both worlds.
Weather helm problem? Lengthen the batten, yard and boom parrels till the sail can be hauled athwartships till near half the sail is on iether side of the mast when downwind sailing. Result... No weather helm.
Good point, thank you, if the batten parrels are set to keep the sail back, then adjustments in them (maybe in conjunction with shifting the halyard attachment point) will be required to allow the boom forward - but half the sail either side?
Thanks for a very clear series. This video explained sailing a junk rig very well. It seems very benign, forgiving and easy to sail compared to a Bermudan rig. The junk rig has many advantages and ought to be more popular. Thanks for sharing knowledge about it.
As an old fart who is not too athletic, the easy reefing and tacking of the JR appeals to me. I've watched a lot of YT videos of young mono- and multi-hull sailors with bermudan rigs, and the amount of effort and risk needed to wrestle with sails on the deck in often lousy weather is sometimes terrifying. I want a lazy man's rig.
I understand. I'm finally comprehending and retaining nearly all of the Subject matter. At the same time, this Subject provides a better understanding of the Bermuda system. I no longer have a misconception of which is to do.
A question. I'm planning on adding sails to my dinghy and I want to keep it super light weight. I really like the junk sails, but I wonder if those battens or what you call them... Do they need to be heavy? I would like to use carbon fiber rods, but from what I can see you use the weight for the reefing. I can't find videos with smaller boats and junk rig, is there anyone using like light weight aluminium or carbon fiber rods that you know about? The carbon fiber would look amazing I think, but if it doesn't fulfill it's function it's pretty pointless I guess.
You are correct - near instant reefing requires some weight in the yard (especially) and battens. And you also want them to be relatively stiff. Certainly not very bendy. Have a look at these channels ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-Cwk23aJMA_o.htmlfeature=shared ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-Q1lgz3mTeE4.htmlfeature=shared and consider joining the JRA for less than €10 to get access to resources and people who can help.
Chafe is not a particular problem because loads are distributed around the rig. But of course it’s important to check the lines periodically. The most important is the halyard because if it fails the sail won’t work- instead it will fall into the lazy jacks and the sheets will go loose so you’ll have to pull them in. Usually nothing calamitous and a lot less dangerous than a failed stay or shroud. But of course masthead attachments, blocks and shackles should be visually inspected from time to time, in the same way as any sailboat. So no special problems but routine maintenance should not be ignored.
@@junkrigassociation Thanks, I'll have a read of that article. Also wonding how well junk rigs cope with heavy weather. Can you really heave-to properly without a jib? A self-tacking jib on a bow sprit like this: asa.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/JunkRigLakeGeorge-1024x634.jpg would seem like a good solution to me. ...And it looks nice! ;-)
@@timhoward7556 Another thing, with the advent of the Jordan Series Drogue the junk rig becomes even more attractive, when it becomes to much to sail substitute heaving too with deployment of the Jordan series drogue, which the more I read about becomes ever more evident as the ultimate storm survival tactic when offshore sailing. Just keep in mind that you can still be dragged 60 miles in a day and storms can last multiple days.
Another great video, thanks for sharing all this information! Anyone knows for an engineer or company that does the conversion from Bermuda to junk rigging?
Sounds like a junk rig is better in almost every way. Strange how these triangle pyramid sailboats became so popular at what is now known as the end of the golden age of sailing. Pyramid sails tear often, beat themselves to death on rigging, and create dangerous situations, all for what is now being proven as marginal gains in the best conditions.
