Stavanger Sunday

One has to realise that the boats Ketil raced against are quite hot, most of them with carbon, Kevlar and Mylar sails. Moreover, these racers can have their sails trimmed in a way the junk sails can not: The camber can be adjusted over a wide range. The fact that the junk sail is stuck with a constant camber will handicap it when going to windward in light winds. For this reason, it may well be that a junk sail meant for inshore racing should have as much as 10% camber in it to better match the average conditions.

It could be that the split junk is more flexible with respect to varying wind strength than the ordinary junk. I am looking forward to hearing more from the racing with that rig.

My motive for going junk was never to produce racing machines, but rather cruising machines. The idea was to get in as many sailed miles compared to motored miles as possible and with the minimum of fuss. One thing is for sure and that is that the general cruising performance of my Malena went up with the cambered junk sail, compared to when she had a Bermuda rig. That masthead Bm rig of course had no fancy trimming of the camber of the mainsail.

Arne

Hi,

Here comes the first report from Marie G:

The start was 4-6 knots headwind, and Marie G behaved quite well. She could not keep up with the good racers, but left a good impression, keeping up with a Bavaria 45 and the not so hot Albin expesses. The 2 best sailed ones just left us behind.

The wind changed direction and build gradually, a dead run starting at 10 knots building to 18. Marie G sprung to life and exelled. Most of the competition flew their spinnakers, and the bigger boats started to get away. As the wind increased, more people had problems with control with broaching and tearing sails. The sea was coming in from the port side, old heavy swells, and made the going rough for the boats around me. Marie G had overhauled the 2 fast Expresses, but they managed to follow her with very hard and skilfully helming. The rounding mark was a concrete tower build on an shallow "mid ocean". That was a 90 degrees tun to starboard, and resulted in a tight reach with the relative wind at 70-80 degrees and the seas from behind. Did she fly? Yes she did. 8 knots constant and surfing to 10,8, higly enjoyable. An extra bonus was looking behind to see the hard working crews to keep the spinnakers flying and not broaching. All good things must end, of course, and at the next rounding mark the wind died and changed to head on. Marie G now had to go to windward in very little wind, changing directions all the time. Sailing into the wind is OK when the wind is 8-10 knots and fairly steady. With wind from 3- 6 knots and warying, it is not easy, especially in the dark. Marie G was overhauled by 5-6 yachts during that period. Later the wind changed (again), and came as a lame 1-2 knots from dead behind. Marie G trotted along at 1-2 knots speed, and overhauled 4 boats in one go in the wee hours of morning. Sun rose and the wind changed to dead ahead 1-2 knots. That meant that the other boats said bye bye to Marie G. We exelled in the tailwind, they excelled in the headwind. Marie G and crew spent the next 7 Hours looking for the wind, and trying to creep forward the best we could. We managed quite well, and got to the point where we could sail to the finishing line when the wind came. We where the last boat to finish, but half the fleet did not reach the finishing line in time, so I am quite pleased with the result achieved.

What conclusions do I make?

1. No other rig gives a mixture of control and power when reaching and running.

2. The Junk Rig is superior running in calm conditions.

3. It performs well in a deacent headwind.

4. It is an absolute bummer in a flimsy head draft.

To establish the handicap on a decent beat, I will have to race it on a circuit. I will do that in the near future, watch this space.

Happy sailing

Ketil

Arne Kverneland wrote:

                                                                            Stavanger, Friday

......... And don’t forget; Marie G also has a very nice, light and elegant interior which makes her perfectly well suited for cruising with 2-3 on board, so I regard her more as a hot racing-cruiser than a flat-out racer.

Arne

2 is just fine!!  the 3rd is only for ballast.  

I don't think the Chinese curse of may you live in exciting times applies to Junk rigs because we are seeing exciting developments with the rig.
I look forward to hearing how she goes.

Great photos and an inspirational approach.