When I read MINGMING by Roger Taylor, amazing stories, BUT about his almost impossible situation on the west coast of island to get out away from the coast I wonder why this rider of the big oceans is sailing a bilge keel ? Already the advantage of the Junk Rig is not going upwind. And he is not going to land so not bothered by tides. Perhaps just a coïncidence.
After all my readings last year, when sailing alone or with people who know little about sailing, from what I see, the Junk Rig is the only way to go unless someone is in a hurry to get somewhere with lots of upwind salings. Not having to go forward to change sails and stading in a storm trying to gather the main sail is a hugh advantage. Also the fact that one can check forward without getting out in the cockpit during a storm.
I talked to a friend who sailed around the world with a steel flat bottom 12 meter centerboarder, not a Junk Rigged, and he always told me that in the trade winds going downwind, the confort is amazing. As a dingy sailor of Laser and Snipe I can understand this. This friend who sailed all the way around the amazon river and wrote books about it, told me about a crossing in the pacific with strong winds where another sailboat with a normal keel had a tremendous hard time and because of this sold the boat and went home.
So it is about trade offs. Going well upwind and be bothered downwind.I suppose all depends also on where on is heading.
But when MINGMING cannot even track forward facing the wind, I think this could almost be a dangerous situation since one cannot depend on the engine, it will not start when it is critical, that is always when it will not start :) and MINGMING does not have an engine !
However, MINGMING is a very small boat.
The second ideal sailboat to me is a flat bottom 26-30 feet sailboat with centerboard, although there is a risk that the centerboard might not work one day, I think this risk is minimal if one takes care to check it out now and then.
The bilge keel would be my first choice because when wanting to leave the boat in a boat yard for a year it is less prone to fall over during storms. When there is a lot of tide llike in the UK and north of France in case of trouble, she will sit steady for 12 hours. Easy to clean the bottom between two tides. The 3 feet draft makes her able to go through rivers and channels and get close to a beach.
To find a Westerly Centuar 26 with a Bilge Keel with a Junk Rig is not easy, but converting one does not seem to be impossible.
I understand that there are some professionals in the UK who can help out with this ?
A Westerly Centuar 26 would take me to the Atlantic Islands to start with some modifications of the cockpit and so on. The big windows would have to be either changed to something indestructable or made less big for safety. I would install an autopilote like the MINGMING so that I can change course without going outside when raining and cold and why not build a tinier watch tower like in the fourth book MINGMING.
But I would like to know :
if a bilge keel like the Westerly Centuar26 rolls heavily going downwind in stormy wheather like a gale ?
And if she is able to go upwind in a gale with a Junk Rig ?
All the best, Raymond