[Artefact2]

This principle is seen at work on any unballasted sailing dinghy that depends primarily on crew weight to stay upright. To prevent the boat from toppling over to leeward, the crew hikes out on the windward rail. The further to windward they can get, the more sail the boat can carry, as the crew’s effective weight is increased by the longer lever arm. On modern dinghies you often see devices such as trapezes and/or hiking rails that allow crew to get as far outboard as possible. On traditional boats like Bahamian sloops and Chesapeake log canoes the crew sits out over the water on long planks that protrude from the windward rail. When the boat is tacked, the planks are moved from one side to the other, and there is a mad scramble as the crew repositions itself.

[elody69]

For cruising sailors, the question of which sort of stability to favor when selecting a boat is a serious one. Many designs available today, of course, are relatively moderate and compromise between extremes. As a general rule, however, popular modern designs tend to be relatively light and wide with shallow bilges, and thus are more stiff than tender. Older designs from the CCA era are usually heavier, narrower, and more tender. As a general rule, coastal cruisers who expect to sail primarily in moderate conditions can, if they like, favor faster, more modern, stiffer designs. Bluewater cruisers who are more likely to encounter extreme conditions should consider whether they’d be better off in slower, more tender design with more ultimate stability.

[aceat64]

Water-ballast systems, on the other hand, have proven more popular. Indeed, several small trailerable cruising boats use static water ballast as their primary ballast. On these boats the ballast tanks are low in the bilge on the boat’s centerline and are filled after the boat is launched to increase its displacement and stability. When the boat is hauled from the water, the ballast tank is emptied to reduce trailering weight. Since the ballast is never shifted, these are more appropriately termed static variable-ballast systems. Dynamic shifting-ballast systems are less common but have appeared on several performance cruising designs. These include at least one production boat, Hunter Marine’s old HC-50, which was designed to be sailed by a couple. On some other production performance cruisers it is also possible to shift water stored in the freshwater tanks from one side of the boat to the other.

[replicawatch]

A traditional Chesapeake log canoe in action

[limikael]

Besides helping boats sink, ballast is counterproductive in another way: it makes a boat heavier and increases displacement, thus increasing resistance and decreasing speed. But this sad fact can be mitigated. The amount of ballast needed to counteract the capsizing forces of wind and wave decreases dramatically the lower it is placed in the boat. Unlike the clown, which must always have its feet on the ground, the bottom of a sailboat can reach as far down as there is water for it to float in. This is one reason why racing sailors always prefer very deep keels and why gunkholing cruisers must agonize over the question of draft. On a stock 40-foot boat, for example, the weight differential between a shoal-draft cruising keel and a deep racing keel installed on otherwise identical hulls can amount to 20% or more of the boat’s total displacement. For many, this will seem a heavy price to pay (pun intended) for shoal-draft capability.

[qqvfredc]

The junk rig shares many of the virtues of the gaff rig. The junk rig or "Chinese lug rig" is easy to handle, very easy to reef, easy and inexpensive to build, easy to rig, has no complex hardware, requires no winches, is easy to maintain, involves very low rigging stresses, provides a low center of effort so requires less beam or depth of keel, and at least in my view, looks great! That is quite an impressive list of positive attributes. The following is not intended to be a comprehensive guide to the junk rig. It is however a good introduction to a few of the advantages offered by the Chinese lug, or junk rig. Due to its excellent qualities for blue water voyaging, I believe the junk rig has much to offer.

[tuhinworld3]

Spars: Spars can be solid wood as is quite traditional, or, without much fuss hollow wooden spars can be made. Alternately, as with the gaff rig, the junk rig can take excellent advantage of welded aluminum tube or pipe for spars. When painted properly the aluminum spars are nearly indistinguishable from traditional round wooden spars. Compared strictly on a strength to weight basis, aluminum spars are much better. When compared on the basis of maintenance, the aluminum spars win again. In terms of longevity. aluminum is far and away the best choice. In terms of first cost (the cost to fabricate the rig), again aluminum wins hands down - all fittings being fully welded and therefore integrally a part of the spars.
48' Junk Rigged Schooner JASMINE
Standing Rigging: Most often, there are shrouds and stays to support the mast, as in the design shown above. However. the junk rig gains a terrific benefit from free standing spars, as can be seen in the Jasmine sail plan shown above. The reason for this is to simplify; to eliminate or greatly reduce chafe; and to allow the sails to have a much greater range of trim - highly useful for running downwind when the sails can be set at nearly 90 degrees to the centerline. Battens: Many types of battens have been tried, varying from the obvious use of wood (easy to make but somewhat heavy for the required stiffness), to the use of ABS pipe (cheap but brittle when cold and limp when hot), to the use of fiberglass rods or bars (strong but somewhat heavy for the stiffness, and fairly expensive). Each material has an advantage and a disadvantage. Although fiberglass battens are a bit heavier and more costly, they will usually outlast the others listed by a substantial margin. Bamboo though is likely to be the ideal for battens: light, flexible, strong, relatively unaffected by heat or cold, inexpensive. and - big surprise - it is the preferred traditional material aboard Chinese junks. Running Rigging: The junk rig is friendly to use. For example, just as with a traditional gaff rig, one will be handling soft Dacron lines and multi-part tackles rather than harsh stainless wire and mechanical winches. Proportion: The drawing shown below is very generic, and is intended only as a schematic to illustrate the approximate layout of a four batten junk (upper yard and boom not included in the batten count). In most applications, and especially for the optimum windward performance, the sail's proportions would be stretched in order to be somewhat taller and less wide. In other words, the rig would ideally have a somewhat higher aspect ratio, very much as can be seen on the 48' Jasmine.

Generic Four Batten Junk Sail Plan - Click for Larger Image

[kardel234]

This letter was received from the current owner of Migrant, one of the vessels mentioned above. Dear Michael, It was nice to come across your piece [above] on the Junk Rig and immediately see Migrant named and another story about Dick Johnson told. I bought Migrant from Dick in 1991 after having sailed on her a number of times since meeting him in 1971 when he first sailed into Bellingham. In 1994, with the same sails that Dick Johnson had used to go to Australia, New Zealand, Pitcairn, Mexico, and back to Bellingham, I sailed Migrant from Bellingham once again, bound for Mexico. I spent a year and a half in Mexico before sailing onward to French Polynesia, Samoa, Tonga, Fiji, the Marshalls, Micronesia, down to the Solomon's, Vanuatu, New Caledonia, and Australia. By then I had put four more years in the tropical sun on the same sail cloth, and it had become very fragile. On the way up the Barrier Reef, the top panel started developing tears. By the time I had crossed the top of Australia and gotten to Ashmore Reef, the top panel was in shreds and only the bolt rope around the perimeter was holding the sail and yard together, yet the sailing performance did not suffer in any noticeable way. By that time the sun damage in the lower panels was severe enough that a careless push with my hand would go right through the sail. Even in bad squalls, the rips did not propagate because of the low stress on the cloth. I continued onward through Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia, and Thailand. I finally replaced the sails in July of 2000 when they became too disreputable looking, even for me. What other rigs exist where a rip in the sail is not of any great concern, or that you would be able to continue onward for that many miles using sails with cloth so old and fragile? William Servais
Aboard the junk rigged schooner, Migrant
[links]

[balboah]

Many of them may be fine people and sailors, but the amount of dishonest rubbish some other JR fans throw at other rigs is depressing. It's probably worthwhile really examining the claims made about junks for that reason.

[jimmythebum]

A converted TP would be my first choice. I'd be looking at an electric motor too, if it needed replacing. [links]

[hebrew15]

Mike I am presuming a bit here so bear with me. however if you have a real itch to go sailing and haven't bought a boat yet, then I would highly recommend you plan on going out with someone if the back scenario is as described above. How you come about this is entirely up to you or perhaps someone can jump in with advice. here

[fredvs79]

The back issue is just over 10 years old and is a degenerative thing so won't be getting better. [links]

[jrabbit]

Might be stating the obvious but thought better to say in case it could be of use. [links]

[x86Daddy]

Yes I've been reading about Mingming and Blondie Hassler.

[dirtyfilthy]

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[siuenhan88]

Another way to prevent getting this page in the future is to use Privacy Pass. You may need to download version 2.0 now from the Chrome Web Store. [links]

[sammelleidenschaft]

If you are at an office or shared network, you can ask the network administrator to run a scan across the network looking for misconfigured or infected devices. here