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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.
March 2019 - Chu-Fa
I think that most sailors know this yacht design. 
Yachting World, in November 2004 wrote: “Testimonials to her weatherliness are legion … All she wants is the right amount of sail area and she just keeps going and seems to love it, and balances like a dream. In other words a real thoroughbred.” The original boat plans for V227, were purchased in 1999 from Laurent Giles Ltd. Between then and 2005, “D.R” worked on building the boat, but then, sadly he died. Subsequently, the boat was was stored in a boatyard until 2013, which was when I bought it.
I had already owned a junk-rigged boat: a Kingfisher 20+ (see PracticalJunkRig). I bought her in Great Britain and sailed her a while in the Baltic Sea. We decided that we wanted something slightly larger, that we could transform to a junk. So this Vertue was it …
We continued with the building. The hull is constructed of two layers of strip planking, encapsulated in epoxy. Sandwiched between the strips is a layer of aramid fibre and there are additional strips of carbon fibre on the interior of the hull. The exterior is sheathed with a layer of glass fibre and epoxy, which then had epoxy primer over it. The topsides were painted and the bottom antifouled. The boat has a laid teak deck and is fitted out down below in mahogany.
As Victor Winthertun had already converted a Vertue to junk rig, in 2015 we asked him if we could use his information and he sent us calculations for the mast; from Sebastian Henschel (Tuchwerkstatt, Peregrine) we got a sail plan, 20% larger (49.5 sq m) than the original plans . We launched Chū-Fā in 2016.
Unlike with Victor’s sail, Chū-Fā’s red sail has camber, with more at the bottom than the top. The yard is a wooden one, but the battens are of aluminium. There is no luff-hauling parrel but I have a reversed running-tack parrel to give me more ability to trim the sail. The sail is made out of Weathermax 80, a material normally used for sprayhoods, but which Sebastian has used for several sails. It is designed to resist UV degradation and general weathering. With the larger sail area, we have better performance in light winds, but have no worries due to the ease of reefing.
The idea for the tabernacle came from Speedwell of Hong Kong. This allows us to lower the mast and to put it on a “Targa frame”, which can be seen in the photos, above the sprayhood.
In 2016-2018, we cruised around the Baltic Sea, visiting Poland, Sweden, Denmark and the German coast. However, we would like to do some longer distance cruising and feel that we possibly need a boat of 10-11 metres to do this, living aboard full time. This would mean we would have to sell Chū-Fā, which is otherwise so near to a perfect boat as is possible to get and I would like to continue to make her even better. And it has to be said said that Shirley Carter has been sailing her Vertue for many thousands of miles and for many years. So we will see.
In 2017 we sailed in “Gaffelrigg 2017”, together with Peregrine at Greifswald, which is where the photos were taken.
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