Members' photo gallery - hover mouse over image to pause slideshow
The final version of the Junk Rig Glossary is now available and can be found under the Junk Information menu, or directly here. This Glossary lists all the terms related to the junk rig, its implementation and use.
We were formed in the UK, and although our 'office' address and banking remains in the UK we are run by an increasingly international Committee via the Internet. A number of posts become vacant every year, at the AGM, so if you choose to join you could also put your name forward to help run the 'club'. It doesn't run itself. Our membership is now more than 50% outside the UK. Click the chart for detail.
September 2017 - Kris Larsen's Kehaar
Kris Larsen built Kehaar in Tasmania, Australia in the 1980s. She is a very basic steel yacht, without 
engine,
electrics or electronics. With limited resources, Kris was attracted to
the idea of utter simplicity and a return to the Slocum era of
voyaging. The boat has no cockpit, being managed from a circular,
central hatch whence the tiller and all sail-handling lines can be
reached. For self-steering, Kehaar has a trim tab on the trailing edge
of her rudder, controlled by a windvane. The mast is 12in diameter solid
Oregon fir, made from a tree Kris purchased from the Tasmanian Forestry
Commission and cut down himself. He sewed his first sail from an old
truck tarpaulin.
In the early 90s, Kris sailed up the east coast of Australia to Darwin,
learning how to get the best out of his rig and boat. After a wet-season
in Darwin, refitting and building a
new sail, he sailed non-stop to Mauritius, the first of many long,
solitary ocean passages, passing his time perfecting celestial
navigation, reading and dreaming, totally at peace with the world. From
there he sailed to Madagascar, where he spent several years, carrying
trading goods from Africa among other escapades, including a visit to
fabled Zanzibar.
Once caught in a typhoon off Taiwan, Kehaar was rolled by a monstrous
rogue wave – the massive Douglas fir mast survived unbroken. During a
trip to Japan Kehaar found herself in freezing 50-knot winds off a lee
shore at Kyushu Island. Kris had to keep up enough sail to drive the
boat to windward. He wrote: “The Madagascar cotton had rotted away, and
panel after panel of our sail blew away as I was pushing the girl
through the swell, clawing our way to windward close-hauled. We gained a
lot of ground, and after weathering the bottom of Kyushu we ran to the
nearest downwind port, in Amami Oshima” [picture, right].
Kehaar eventually sailed NE to Chagos Atoll, Sri Lanka, Hong Kong,
Japan, Vladivostok, Pusan, Sarawak, and the Philippines, where he
remained for a number of years. His girlfriend Natalie Uhing accompanied
him back to Darwin. Kehaar crossed the Indian Ocean again in 2014.
Natalie joined ship in South Africa and together they spent two years
cruising South America and the Caribbean. Natalie is now back in Darwin
while Kris sails on solo. After more than 30 years and 70,000 miles,
still engineless and utterly basic, Kehaar continues to be a reliable
voyaging ship.
Our Boat of the Month Archive is here.
