An updates on the rig. Out in 20 knots this week (or as Arne would say, f5), great sailing but hard to control due to exessive weather helm as I had all panels up.  When I headed off the wind and was running it was still a little tricky but a very fun ride with a comparable sized bermuda boat alongside to make it extra interesting. Even with the added handicaps of towing a dinghy and with the outboard motor still lowered I was just pulling ahead. So it was until my extra-slippery polyester lines decided they weren't really that into my knots and bends, and at that moment I lost my upper sheetlet and aft lazy jack at the same time, and the whole rig blew forward and hanging down into the considerably rolling sauce. Yikes! With some scrambling and lots of holding on I managed to get it all inboard and sorta-rigged enough to get into some shelter, rechecked and refixed all the problem lines and carried on the next day in similar conditions with a prudent one panel reef, much better steering control, and no further problems.

I am not an artist but I love the pattern the old sail cloth has been cut into with the old sail number placed at the head and even an old sailmaker logo near the luff.  I bet the original sailmaker didn't realize he would get extra publicity from a recycled sail.

Looks good! I love the idea of reusing old dacron sails. I have two old worn genoas and a mainsail that I can use when I re-rig, luckily for me they're all cross cut. Dacron should be a lot more durable than polytarp (and in my case also cheaper). Also, using binoculars with a smartphone camera is just brilliant, gotta try it myself. How did you construct the mast?

Karlis K wrote:I'd like to announce the completion of my Junk rigging project on my Buccaneer 240 "Otterbelly". The rig is a 6-panel version of Arne Kverneland's Johanna design from his CPJR papers. The barrel-cambered panels are made with used dacron from 2 old genoas. The mast is a 6-staved birdsmouth of douglas fir. The whole project took way longer than I had anticipated (almost 2 years with all interruptions), mostly due to complications in the mast build, but I learned a lot and am happy to be finally sailing it. I haven't done enough sailing with it yet to fully tune the rig or assess balance under different points of sail and number of panels, but by good luck some friends managed to get some photos with a smartphone through binoculars while I was on a first test sail. I wanted to share the new gallery here. Thanks so much for all the help from the JRA, particularly Arne Kverneland and also David Tyler.

I hope I get to see her when I finally reach the Vancouver area. Well done!

Thanks Roy. There's also a section about this in our Help pages.

Meantime if members click on Karlis's name under the image in his post, they'll go straight to his profile, where they can click on Photos and open his 'Otterbelly' album.

And well done Karlis!