Hi Alex 

I was also new to sewing as i started to make the cambered sail for my Kingfisher 20+. I'd go for Arne's barrel method wich I find easy to understand and to put in practice. Moreover, Arne's articles are really detailed and there are a lot of pictures of making different sails in his files. This helped me a lot.

I grabbed a sail plan from his portfolio, let print paper templates and started sewing. After a couple of weeks the job was done.  

I think there is no straight seam in my sail, but it works greatly!!! My tough, heavy, big little boat moves happily to windward also in light winds and points surprisingly high...

Good luck with your project

Mauro

Bonsoir

For years, I avoyed junk rig besause it's bad performances windward, with the flat sails designed under the "practical junk rig" concept.

I'm now a convinced defender of the junk rig because various cambered sails (barel cuts, split junkrigs... ) perform as well as "pointies" headwind.

So please don't stuck to early sixty's.... of last century !

Eric

PS: no one would even imagine a flat pointy nowdays !

Hi Alex.
Over the years I have made a few junksails, ranging between 10 and 48sqm, all of them with around 8% camber, using the barrel cut method. I guess I spend somewhere between 30 and 50 hours on each sail, and I am anything but a pro.

I cannot imagine how I could shave off as much as 30% time on making my sails flat. As for performance, the cambered sails play in a different league than the flat sail I initially had. Generally, I estimate the improvement in progress to windward to be  30-50%. In some conditions, light winds and a bit chop, the flat sail will simply leave you there, while the cambered sail gets you started.

To me, making a flat junksail for a boat like your Farr 5000, is simply waste of time.

Cheers and good luck,
Arne

Alex wrote:

[...]I would welcome advice on what cloth and webbing to use bearing in mind the boat is a day sailer and although 15 knots of breeze will be common around here, to be out in 25 knots would be unlikely. [...]

Hello Alex,

I have been very happy with the WeatherMAX 65 (Sometimes called WeatherMAX LT) that I used for my sail. It weighs 6.5 oz per square yard compared to the 8.0 oz of the 'normal' WeatherMAX that other JRA members have used.

I ordered it from Seattle Fabrics. 

Assuming I followed all the links correctly then I think it should be available from Contender Sailcloth in Australia.

I have not used the heavier WeatherMAX but I have to assume the WM 6.5 is much easier to sew. The two sides of the fabric are identical as far as I can tell and I can't imagine the fabric would be too light for a JR sail of any size.

I am less confident that I picked the best webbing and other sail materials, but I really like this fabric. I would like to see someone else use it and confirm that it is a good choice.

I'm sorry that nobody has replied to you earlier: most unlike the JRA!

Choosing light, UV-resistant canvas isn't that easy, and it's not made any better by the fact that so few boats are out in strong sunlight for any lenght of time.  I've been happy with my Weathermax up to now (2+ years), although an acquaintance complained that his had deteriorated badly in the Tropics.  There is a lighterweight Weathermax available.

As to webbing.Don't be tempted by polypropylene which deteriorates very rapidly in sunshine - and isn't particularly strong.  The black, polyester webbing that most sailmakers use lasts for years.  I have always found sailmakers incredibly obliging people and if you go to the one nearest to you, I'm sure they will order you a reel of webbing so that you know you're getting the right stuff.

Hopefully, with this reply taking the topic back up to the top, someone else will chip in.