Hi Chris
Many years ago I asked Annie (Hill) how well Missee Lee sailed to windward and her instant reply was, and I quote, ‘She didn’t.’ She may have qualified the response after that, but her instant response burned itself into my memory. This was about the time I was starting to study the lack of windward performance of the otherwise excellent junk rig, and was an interesting starting point.
Missee Lee was a 20 foot Westcoaster, designed by Commander Denys Ryner who was the founder of Westerly Yachts. His first design was the Westerly22, which was basically a Westcoaster, but built in glass. The design got stretched and extended aft to bring the outboard motor inboard of the transom, and the final stage of the development was the 25 foot Westerly Windrush, still with triple keel but weighing a couple of tonnes. There’s no doubt it’s a great boat with a lot of character, but windward performance will not be its strong point with any rig. Whatever rig is used, this is a design which needs as much help to windward as possible, I believe it is important to get the rig right and accept some slight inconvenience, rather than get the accommodation right and accept questionable ability upwind.
To get the best performance out of the triple keels this boat would need a rig that will give the best possible lift/ drag ratio and will need to be sailed a decent speed to keep the keels working. Of all the junk rigs I believe the split rig would work best on this boat, but it would be a waste of time to use if not set up for it’s best possible performance, with slim mast correctly positioned. Finding the correct position for the mast might not be that easy. A lot would depend on getting an accurate drawing of the hull and standard sail plan, and some information on how it actually behaves with the standard rig.
I would be surprised if the thick hollow mast positioned as you suggest and with a 30% balance would be a success. I think it would be necessary to design the rig first and marry it to the hull second. I’m sure this is not the answer you were hoping for Chris, but if you are going to go to the trouble to convert the rig then make sure you get the best possible return for the effort.
If you’ve got a landline let me have your number and we can have a chat about it.
Cheers, Slieve
The designer and builder of my new boat has a track record which goes back to the 60's, when he was involved in the design and testing of British entries for the Americas Cup. One rig he designed for a development class was banned because it won too many of the races, and I have used information from some of his work when designing Poppy’s rig. There is much to learn. I'm looking for a good photo to put on my profile.