I put a junk rig on my 10' marbles seacliper trimaran. Aluminum tubing for the mast and the batters, sail was out of polytarp using Arne's camber method.  Worked great!

Thanks Scott :)

A puddle duck and a junk rig sounds like a match made in heaven :)

I made mine from free plans on duckworks, I just added a foot of rise, moved the camber six inches forward, and made the bottom panels 4 inches shorter, here's the link if your interested

http://www.duckworksmagazine.com/06/howto/junkrig/index.htm

Had her out for several hours today in much stronger wind, about 15-20 mph, enough that all the construction wrinkles stretched out so it fills and sets much nicer.

the junk rig really tames my wee dingey, no way I would have gone out today with any of the other sails I've tried, 2 foot whitecaps seem a lot bigger when the sides of your boat are only 16 inches high :) I was able to try out all my reefs and get better idea of how to rig the sheets, at the moment it looks more like a  crabclaw with battens when it's fully reefed because the sheets are so long when I reef.

so far I think my favorite thing about the sail is the lack of a downhaul and kicking strap, if I need to see to leeward I can just lift the bottom of the sail and look, no need to practice my yoga to see under the sail, it's also really nice when I'm tacking, instead of kneeling in the water sloshing around the bottom of the boat to dodge the boom I can just flip the sail over my head as it goes by, a huge bonus since I have a bad back.

On the way back from the boat launch I ran across a singer sewing machine on the side of the road with a "Free" sign on it, I think it's a sign from on high that I should build split junk rig :D

Stay Safe

Bill

Hi All :)

Well, due to some unfortunate happenstance I had to take a few months off from sailing, finally got back into it last week and made the sail, took it for it's first trial run this morning and I'm quite pleased.

Owl looks lovely under that junk rig Martin :) I didn't want to put that kind of time into a a trial sail so I just went with polytarp sandwiched between 2 piece battens with lots of screws and lots and lots of carpet tape :) 

the sail is about 70 sq ft with about 6% camber and a 1.64 aspect ratio, I had it out in about 2-3 knots of wind this morning and it worked really well, MUCH better than any triangle I could hang on a 12' mast.

I'm still working out the sheets and playing with balance/ parrels etc. but at this point I'm really wishing I'd started with a Junk Rig, I can't wait until I get it fully tuned.

the best part is the feeling of safety I get with this sail, I can drop it into the lazy jacks with a tug on the halyard and it's never over canvased.

If the wind is blowing tomorrow I'm going to pack a lunch and make a day of it.

The second picture is a proa I'm working on, it'll have a junk rig as well.

Bill

Hi Nicholas,

the secret to a hassle free junk rig set up for a dinghy is a short length of PVC pipe threaded over the mast with a short tail of rope attached to the top and bottom. Drop the rig and stretch all of the parrells over the short length of pipe then tie them there with the tails of rope. Then when you pull the mast out they are easy to deal with, stay together and can easily be threaded back over the mast. You also need to tie the fore and aft ends of the sail bundle. The topping lifts ( they need to be able to be loosened from the deck), yard hauling parrell and halyard are fairly easy to deal with after the sail bundle is taken care of. Much easier than dealing with a bermudan sail and mast but a bit more complex than a simple balanced lugsail which I usually use on my small dinghy's. 

All the best with the project.

David.

Martin,

it appears that you have hit very well. Before starting such a conversion on a dinghy, it may seem to be a not so good idea  -  why  fit the ‘complex’ JR on such a small boat? The payback comes as soon as the sail goes up. From then on, the rig becomes the simplest and safest there is. I did a similar conversion to a bigger dinghy (Broremann) and the tippy and rather challenging thing suddenly became safe and dependable, as well as fast and simple to operate.(Youtube).

One challenge with a JR on a trailerable boat is to make rigging and unrigging as simple and fast as possible. I guess the best remedy is to sail often, so one gets good routines, just as with setting up tents when skiing or walking in the mountains. On my Broremann I didn’t have to think of this, as she lived on the water all summer.

Good luck! Soon the spring is here ( only -6°C  in Stavanger, this morning)!

Arne