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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.

February 2020 - Weaverbird

David Tyler has designed and built a variety of junk and wing sails, and over many years has been generous in sharing his experience and technical knowledge. He writes here:

“Weaverbird is a Hunter Duette 23, which has the same hull and deck as the popular club racer the Sonata, but with twin keels instead of a deep fin keel. The accommodation is similar, but the Duette has a slightly larger galley area. Designed by David Thomas, the performance is good, as one would expect with such a provenance.

“I bought her after deciding to down-size, selling Tystie in New Zealand early in 2016 and flying back to the UK. I wasn’t ready to give up cruising entirely, but wanted a “toy for my old age”, that was large enough to cruise the west coast of the UK in a summer season. Living in Ravenglass, a boat that could take the ground regularly was a necessity. I spent the summer of 2016 installing a tapered aluminium alloy mast and making a junk sail with hinged battens and a low-angled yard; installing a composting heads; and improving the galley a little. The mast had to be well forward in the boat, to be clear of the fore hatch and to allow enough room for the heads. There is little headroom in the fore cabin. Originally, it had two child-sized berths, which I took out in favour of having more room for fenders, warps and other cruising equipment, as well as the heads. In the main cabin, there is a long settee berth on either side, abaft the galley. In the cockpit, there is an outboard well just ahead of the rudder, and this is one of the less satisfactory aspects of the boat. It was designed in the days of smaller 2-stroke outboards, and is not quite so well suited to the larger modern 4-strokes.

“I sailed with the junk sail for two summers of four months each; in 2017 covering the UK west coast between Stornoway and Plymouth, and in 2018 sailing in Scottish waters. However, I found that I still had an urge to go back to the junk-based wingsails that I’d been trying to develop on Tystie, with limited success. I hoped that at a smaller size, and with as simple a construction as I could manage, I could get the windward performance that I was looking for, losing nothing of the junk rig’s ease of handling and with no compromise on strength and longevity.

“And so it seems to have turned out. In 2019, I sailed from Ravenglass down to Brixham, performed well in the Heritage Regatta there, sailed on to Poole and compared well with the SJR on Amiina, and then sailed home around the “Wild West” coast of Ireland. So, good performance combined with being able to stand up to cruising in sometimes challenging conditions: mission accomplished. There are some improvements in the shape of the luff area and in the reliability of the batten hinges to be made, and these are now in hand, with the aim of cruising up to Orkney in the summer of 2020.”

Further articles on David’s evolution of soft wingsails may be found in the JRA Magazine Issue 80 “New Sail for Weaverbird” and in technical notes “Tystie’s Rig Update” here.

Our Boat of the Month Archive is here.