Here is a link to Robert's gallery showing his costings.

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"Generally speaking, how much do I need to factor into the budget to convert a boat to junk rigging?

Thanks!!"

Hi, In 2014 I converted from sloop to a 550 ft^2 split junk. I've detailed my costs here: http://www.junkrigassociation.org/Sys/Profile/PhotoGallery/36059564?memberId=3252499 robert self

rafael pereyra-lago wrote:Option 2: convert to Junk rig. Budgetary estimate for conversion (from rigger that has already converted two Freedom 30s - exactly the same boat) was GBP 10.000.

This seems a fantastic amount of money, to me.  Chris Gallienne recently pointed out that you can buy battens for 15 quid each.  You have the masts and it's not hard to knock up a couple of yards and booms.  Rope isn't that expensive and PJR will allow you to work everything out to the nearest few inches.  Junk sails are pretty quick to put together.  I don't understand why you are being charged so much.  My suggestion would be (a) to get a quote for the sails alone and do the rest yourself or (b) do everything yourself.  There are lots of members around who have done so, and many of them, like me, are not particularly clever at this sort of thing.

Most Junk rigged boats use freestanding masts, so almost any boat requiring a conversion will need a new mast.  At 40' and for a family boat, you would probably want two masts (Ketch or Schooner) not one.  You would take out the stayed bermudan mast and put in two freestanding keel-stepped masts.  So, yes you are going to mess with the interior.  How much you have to change will depend a lot on the boat.  If you haven't read Practical Junk Rig by Hasler and McLeod, you should.  It will give you the info you need to figure out the rig and mast locations for any perspective boat.   This can give you an idea of how much trouble and interior modification a boat will require.

A metal boat is pretty easy to make structurally sound changes to, but you will have issues that require removing some of the interior, such as removing any insulation in areas that are to be welded and a host of other challenges.  This can be done at reasonable cost if you can do it yourself and have an inexpensive place to keep the boat.  If you have to pay someone else to do it, it can be very expensive.  Also, not many folks are going to have experience with freestanding masts or the Junk rig.  So, even if you hire it out, you are going to need to give them instructions about every step.  As an example, I had my masts unstepped at a busy yard this year.  The crane operator had never done a freestanding mast.

I think there are a lot of great reasons for a junk rig, but I'm not sure low cost is always true.  If a boat needed a new rig anyway, or if you were building new I think it can be fairly said that Junk Rig is cheaper.  However, there are lots of inexpensive used boats out there with workable sails that would be a lot cheaper than doing a Junk conversion.  That said, I've chosen to go to moderate expense and significant trouble to have a Junk rigged boat (for those that will allow wingsails to be call Junk) because I think it is the best match for long-distance family cruising and even if it were more expensive it would still be a very sensible choice.

Are you going to truck a boat back to Red Deer from the coast to work on it?

I like the idea of aluminum as well. I think the corrosion issues are probably more manageable as long as everything is properly isolated? I'm just no good at welding the stuff! In any case, back to the issue at hand. Part of the reason we were looking at going with a junk rig is the relatively low cost so, in all likelihood, we would be doing it with whatever materials are available at low cost. One of the major concerns I had though is that, at least according to my current understanding, a junk's mast should be stepped at the keel, slanted forward and usually a couple of feet forward of the current mast's position? Does this incur huge expenses in reconfiguring the deck and interior??