Pol,

I can see Annie's point about the shrouds, but only half way: The yard can of course not be swung out further that the gaff could, but as a junksail can be controlled with much less twist in it than a gaffrig, downwind, it will have better clearance to accidental gybes as well.

Except for that, I agree with Annie that a split junk may be a good idea if you don't want the mast to sit far forward on the boat.

Good luck!

Arne

Hi there Arne, Ash and Annie,

Its great to get such a welcome and some suggestions already! Arne, I was hoping to go the whole hog - as Annie puts it - and get the full benefit by having a free-standing rig, for exactly the reasons Annie describes. I sailed on Nigel Iren's lugger ROXANE years back in a race to Falmouth from Fowey in Cormwall. Dead downwind and she went like a rocket on swells big enough for some of the bigger gaffers to disappear alltogether in the troughs only half a mile away. All squared away, it is possible, so I'd like that in the unstayed rig if is it possible... However if we didnt mind making 2 sails or acquiring one for a season just to have a go, you may have a point Arne. That way we could try the junk main before doing the big job!

Anyway I'll be reading your various articles on the site and learning more from those.

Your posts have vanished as I write this so I have probably missed a few bits, but will be back soon.

Thanks again,

Pol.

Welcome Pol, Amanda and Rosa hope you find all the information you need and enjoy it whilst you are looking.

Hi Chris,

Thank you for your welcome! Yes, you have a very good point about wrecking what is already - with a few tweaks - a good rig. Because we need a new mainsail I am in the position of having to either put her mainsail arrangements back as they were originally, which is a good option in many ways, or changing the rig dramatically for an easier life. Both involve expense, the junk option being the greater as it is likely that I'll have to move the mast, and maybe even replace it. BUT, the beauty of the junk option as I see it is that we'll be able to go on sailing ANNIE into great old age without worrying about hauling down the reefing pendant and tying in the points on the gaff main ever again!

For a while I considered 'doing a ROXANE' on her i.e. giving her a high-peaked standing lug yawl rig like the lovely 29' boat that Nigel Irens designed and built a few years back. A mast right at each end. Although a delight to sail (I did with Nigel in big sea conditions once) the big lug is another potential handful. A drawback so beautifully and powerfully avoided by PEREGRINE - what a glorious boat she is! So the standing lug option is passed. Junk it could be, but greater minds than mine will need to get their heads around whether or not the hull shape and structure will allow it!

In my simplistic way I see the issues as being 1. how far forward the mast has to come, 2. whether her structure forward will allow this re-positioning (her mast is deck-stepped now and I aim to keel-step it if moving it) and 3. whether she has the buoyancy forward to cope with this move in 'drive' (I've read that the JR lifts more than most rigs). So that's why I'm here, really! I've a bit of reading and listening to do...

Thanks again for your reply.

Best wishes,

Pol.

Hi All, I am excited to say that I've just signed up for membership of the Association. My name is Pol Bergius, I'm 52, I live in Perthshire in Scotland with my (younger) wife of 10 years Amanda and our daughter Rosa who is just 6. We are probably the luckiest family we know in that we have just inherited my parents' 29' Cornish Crabber ANNIE (aka a cornish pilot) who they have had for just about all of her 35 years. I grew up with a gaff rigged boat of 26 tons in the family, and so am up to my neck in that four-cornered sail thing. But recently I realised that are too many things that we are not ALL able to do on the boat, which leads to unwelcome stress when we are doing the thing that we most love doing - getting away for days and weeks on the boat together on the west coast of Scotland. 

Quite simply, Life Could Be Easier!! Badger and the Hills entertained and impressed us years ago. I've learned much from Annie's wonderful book. I'm reading Roger Taylor and Ming Ming now (vile bug, confined to bunk, birthday just been..) it is all just too serendipitous!

So I joined because I must, rather than clearing junk out of my head, FILL it completely with JUNK, in order to decide if this rig is going to be an option for us. For next season?!

So I'll be back with all kinds of very silly questions, no doubt, but in the meantime thanks to Ash for his great intro for 'newbies', and to all those who have firied me up thus far. Annie Hill and Roger Taylor in particular!

Can't wait to burn some midnight oil over the next weeks and months.

Pol.