One thing I'd like to say is that I am grateful to so many people in the JRA for the advice and support they have given me, without which I would never have converted Arion to junk rig, or had so many happy miles aboard that boat and, subsequently, Blue Moon.  I'd been interested in junk rig since I was 14-years-old, but was almost 60 when I finally realised my dream.  Well-meaning friends, with no first-hand experience, kept talking me out of it.

Then, finally, in 2009, Alan Martiennsen sailed Zebedee into Cairns, in North Queensland, Australia, and anchored near me.  He encouraged me to join the JRA, and gave me copies of Arne Kverneland's articles about putting camber in Malena's sail, explaining that the Association was a brilliant resource, and a good place to find like-minded friends, which has proven to be so true.

David Tyler persuaded me to try a cambered sail when I was converting Arion to junk rig in 2011,  after which I began writing for the Association as well, which has brought me much joy and many friends.  Annie Hill and I began an ongoing friendship, correspondence and occasional phone chats; Lynda and David Chiddell have become dear friends; Paul Thompson built Blue Moon a beautiful sail, and is going to build my next sail as well, once I can find the boat to put it on, and is another dear friend; The list goes on and on.  I don't have a biological family, but the JRA membership gives me a sense of identity.

I am just a monkey, as Bernard Moitessier once said of himself.  I just follow the smart ones.  Moitessier also said that Joshua was filled with one sailor's dreams and the ideas of many others,  which also holds true for my boats.  I hope I have been able to convey my gratitude to the JRA in my memoir.  Inevitably, some of my conclusions or preferences when it comes to setting up and sailing junk rigs will differ from other members, but I continue to follow everybody's ideas and projects with close interest.  As they might say in Australia, you're a grand mob.

David Tyler wrote:

Well, well, here's a gap in my knowledge that has now been filled in: Loner, a 14'5" JR miniature ocean cruiser designed by Blondie Hasler. I can't find a reference to this boat anywhere else in my library.

Hi David, here is photo of Blondie sailing the prototype of Loner.  I wonder what became of the boat?  He had it built in foam sandwich by Derek Kelsall, his old OSTAR mate.  A 20' version, built for Charles Ure of Sydney, disappeared without trace after leaving North Africa for the Caribbean, despite being designed to be unsinkable.  Click on image to view full-size.

I just ordered a print copy of Volume 1 and am looking forward to reading it. It had been showing as sold out for a few days but is now back in stock.

I've just finished volume one and can highly recommend it. Like others, I two encountered some of the people Graham mentions but being 5 years younger than him, I have missed out on some of the action. Will start volume two tonight. 

I have decided to revise three paragraphs in Chapter 10 of of Volume Two, entitled, A Long Time Coming, to acknowledge the invaluable assistance I received from David Tyler when Arion's first, black, junk sail was being built.  I'd initially not named David, as I had a lot of issues with the sail (all eventually sorted) and was worried that my negative mindset at the time that I was wrestling with the conversion would sound like unintended criticism.  I've rewritten these paragraphs to clarify the situation and acknowledge his help. 

Anyone who has already bought an ebook from Kobo can email me and I will send them an epub of the updated version.  I am not sure about Amazon, but will look into it if anyone contacts me.  The amended versions, print and ebook, across all platforms, should be available within 72 hours from now (1800, May 25, Australian Eastern Standard time).  I cannot do anything about offering new print versions, but please take the paragraphs below into account.

The situation was that I had intended building a flat-cut sail, but David persuaded me, and my sailmaker, to try a cambered one.  The sailmaker, a good friend, was a bit skeptical about junk rigs, but had offered to build me a flat-cut sail from Dacron at cost.  He did not like working with Odyssey 111, and the added complication of building the sail with camber did not help his stress-levels.  

I was initially very unhappy with the sail, but came to love it eventually.  Arion was too wide and heavy to sail well to windward in a developed sea, but sailed and tacked like a big dinghy under the cambered sail in sheltered water.  When it fell apart four years later, I could not find a local sailmaker willing to tackle a cambered sail, so commissioned a flat-cut Dacron sail.  It was fine when we got going, and powerful off the wind, but a lot slower in stays, and lacked drive to windward by comparison.

My next boat, Blue Moon, had a cambered sail built by Paul Thompson (who I will ask to build my next junk sail, too), and I'd never go back to a flat-cut sail again, especially for coastal cruising.  So, a big shout out to David Tyler for introducing me to camber, and for having the courage, over many years, to try new things.  I can only wish my mind was as open as his.

Here are the amended paragraphs of Chapter 10 of Volume Two:

Cambered junk sails were in the early days of development, but I’d been persuaded to try one by David Tyler, a veteran junk rig sailor, chairman of the JRA, and editor of the JRA magazine, who was then in Hobart aboard his much-travelled junk-rigged Tystie, and also to use Odyssey 111, which was designed for boat covers, not sails. It is a light (5oz), stretchy material, with a UV stabilising coating, but only on the side that is meant to face the weather. Undoubtedly it makes excellent boat covers, but proved to be a poor choice for cruising sails, although I did get four years of hard sailing out of it.

So, it was time to party, except that I wasn’t happy. I wasn’t used to things breaking or malfunctioning on Arion, and felt, quite irrationally, that I’d ruined my beautiful boat. In the long term, I came to love my cambered sail, and was grateful to David Tyler and Russell Streckfuss for their contributions to the project. At the time, however, despite my long fascination with junk rig, plus the sail I’d had aboard Minke in Gladstone Harbour, and the memory of sailing in company with Matt in 1998 from Cairns to Townville, not to mention sailing with Terry Penton on Si Hai, I went into a negative spin.