Hi Mel and Gavin!

We hope also to meet you on the big blue med…

We are very happy with Shui Jen. She is a little big boat. She is small but with enough space and storage for a family of four; small but heavy, stable and with a very children friendly gentle motion. 

She sails good too. We sailed downwind in F4 with four panels and the motor down and we were as fast as a much longer sloop sailing near us only with the Genoa. She seems to be good balanced, we sailed upwind in F3 to F4 with full sail and her rudder was always light. I could leave it for a bit without any significant deviation.

For this we thank of course also the top sail of Mr. Kverneland!!!

If you consider a conversion for your actual boat, I would really recommend to go for his method and his plans.  

The only problem that we had, was the twisting of the sheet. I replaced the block of the upper sheetlets with one without swivel and hope this will work better…

PS: Shui gets a lot of TLC :-)  

Ciao

Thank you Graeme!

It's a good idea. To a more accurate description of the cruise, I could also add a couple of pictures of the refitting too.

Mauro

Dear friends of the JRA!

After 9 months of intensive refitting, Shui Jen has been launched and sailed again. 

Shui Jen is a Kingfisher 20+ that belong to Vincent Reddish, she spent her last 15 years in the french alps. The last two she was not sailed and since 2021 belongs to me and my family.

Shui Jen has been loved by all her former owners but has not been updated in the last years. Her refitting was the perfect occasion for us to know each others better and to get started in the world of yachting.

The refitting included:

-a new sail made of Odissey III cloth;

-a new sail cover;

-new alloy battens and yard; 

-new blocks and dyneema lines and parrels;

-a three part Euphore made of a Dyneema line and Burton rings;

-new wedges made of pine wood;

-new mast coat made of neoprene and PVC sewn together;

-new windows of Plexiglass with neoprene gaskets;

-new 12 volt electrical system including a 50w solar panel;

-painting the inside;

All these works were made on ourselves. 

The works on hull and seacocks were made professionally because of lack of experience and time. These works were made by Viacheslav, a former cadet of the soviet navy that worked firstly as captain on cargo vessels around the world and now works as a skipper and boat builder in the harbor of Koper (Slovenia). The works included:

-removing the old layers of antifouling to the gel coat;

-removing the rust on the keels;

-sealing the two seacocks on the starboard side;

-replacing the aft seacock with a new one of bronze;

-epoxying all the little and big defects of hull, deck and keels;

-smoothing hull and keel with primer;

-painting deck and hull in a fresh snow white colour;

-new black antifoulig;

-installing a bilge pump;

Viacheslav found little signs of osmosis and a lot of cracks on the gel coat. The keels were rusty but solidly attached. As the seacocks were replaced, he was impressed by the thickness of the fiberglass. He found that the hull of our boat is thicker than that of a Nauticat 33, he had worked on. Accordingly, his comment on our boat was: „she is build like a tank and her hull is strong like a stone!“.

Shui Jen was lunched on July 2022. On her maiden voyage she was sailed from Portoroz (Slovenia) to Monfalcone (Italy) from a crew of two: Viacheslav and me. I think he accepted to come with me in this first sea trial, also because of curiosity on the Junk rig and on this little strange boat. In the time he worked on Shui Jen, I explained him all the advantages and peculiarities of the JR I’ve read about, but I’ve never sailed one. Hoisting the sail in the gentle wind from the NW was the moment of the truth: either the confirmation that what I told him about the JR was right, or the demonstration that all the theory I’ve talked about was false.

As all the 7 panels inflated and the sail start to pull the boat closed hauled on the starboard tack, I screamed „it works!“ and yelled out a woohoo of relief and happiness. A gentle pull on the throat hauling parrel eliminated almost all the diagonal creases off the panels and Shui Jen started to point a bit higher than the old bermudian sloop near us. After a while, we tacked and set our curse to N to reach Monfalcone. Because of sailing on the „bad tack“ we planned a couple of tacks more, but as the boat could point quite good, these were not necessary and we made the entire leg on this tack. We covered the 17 miles in 5 hours making and average speed of 3.5 knots in 8 to 9 knots of wind.

The boat is due to her weight and the two keels very stable. She is also quite sensible and the tiller is light. I think she has a little weather helm but more sailing is needed to confirm this first impression…

I’d like to thank Linda & Pete Hill for supporting me and encouraging us in doing this; Arne for sharing his knowledge in a way that enables beginners to realize such a miracle; my wife for supporting me and sharing with me a good amount of the work…

Buon vento a tutti 

Mauro

Hi Mauro
Batten, boom and yard lengths:
I generally cut the battens a bit, longer, 5-10cm that the B-dimension. The yard could well be 10cm longer. The batten 2 is cut so that its aft end is at least flush with the vertical leech. In this case, 29cm extra is needed. You may well add another 5-10cm. This ensures that the uppermost sheetlet will clear the sail when gybing.

Tying sail to the battens, etc.
When tying the batten to the sail (with pockets), I start with tying at the aft end, and then try to tie the batten flush with the leech (again to avoid sheetlet-batten conflicts). Then I tie the sail to the batten in the forward end. Now I stretch the sail lightly to minimise wrinkles along the battens.
The boom should also be tied flush with the leech.

Choice of batten dimensions:
I am no expert in calculating batten dimensions. Anyway, one must use what is available. I guess I would try 25 x 2mm for the lower battens. The boom, and two upper battens could well be 35 x 2mm or 35 x 1.5mm.

Odyssey for sail:
The Odyssey III has worked well for me. However, I have seen those on lower latitudes who have had problems with UV-damage. The Odyssey only has UV-coating on one side. I still think it will work, as long as you make a sail cover and use it when the boat is out of use.

Good luck!
Arne

Hallo Arne,

Thank you for your thoughts and suggestions!

The mast is 8,3 m long, 6 m above the deck and sits on the deckhouse immediately behind the front portholes. I cannot take the exact measure because the boat is already in France…the former owner is waiting to register the street trailer and then I will be able to transport her to Austria (where I live).

I would like to do day sailing and costal cruising mainly in the south of Sardinia, where I was born and where is enough wind. The crew will consists of me (little experience) and my family (no experience)…so you are definitively right, it’s better to start with a smaller sail area and than eventually increase it as the experience has also increased.

I think I will just copy the sail plan of FS. After all this is my first sailmaker project and I feel that knowing all the measures will help me avoiding technical errors or miscalculations.

Thank you again

Mauro