Hi Guys, sorry to take so long to get fingers to keyboard. Firstly, no one wins the prize for proof reading the PBO article. Look at page 59, last column fourth line from the bottom and first word. I didn’t notice it either.

 

I sail my model boat with 33% of the sail area in front of the mast and the rig is completely stable in all wind conditions. This would place the mast at over 33% chord when the split is taken into consideration. The split as rigged on Poppy is wider than necessary with the mast being only 6” tapering to 5” diameter. The answer about mast position is to draw up the rig with its designed mast position, find the centre of area and slide the diagram over the Bermudan rig diagram. I ignored the information on mast lead in Practical Junk Rig and simply place the Split Rig centre of area over the Bermudan centre of area as the camber in the sails moves the centre of pressure forward so the Bermudan C of A applies. By the way, there is a rig due to be launched soon which has all 5 split panels as parallelograms and only the top two full panels fanned and tapered. The yard angle is similar to Poppy’s. I doubt if the mast position would coincide the Bermudan mast position. (If it did it would be pure coincident. Ouch!)

 

Regarding the testing of the rig and publicity, this is a problem that every experimenter struggles with. Undoubtedly trials against the identical Bermudan boat would be best, but the bottoms have to be clean, the props the same and other problems have to be covered. It’s not as easy to do as it seems. The alternative test is racing, but that depends on so many other factors. It does give a good indication even thought the race result may not show it. The Round the Island Race gave me the widest range of opponents, but also the handicap problems. Read through the results over the years and you will see that some boat designs are always in the top places, and some specific boats in the silverware. Good crews help, but no handicap system can be perfect.

 

All boat races are different, but the Island race is exceptional. With around 1700 boats on the water the surface is always choppy if not a flat calm, and the first beat is wind against tide so the chop plays a big part. For tidal reasons the staggered start tends to favour the smaller, slower boats but they have to be heavy enough to punch through the chop. The South Coast One Design (SCOD) is always high in the results, and the FolkBoat even though most of them sail in their own fleet. A junk rig can only compete in the ISC handicap as the IRC system penalises any sails with more than 3 sides, and it costs serious money to get a rating. The FolkBoat derivatives also do well, such as the Contessa 26. These boats get favourable handicaps, and the blunt bowed ‘accommodation’ boats like Poppy do not. 

There is no doubt in my mind that THE boat to make the public pay attention would be Jester, with a better rig. With its high ballast ratio it could be driven hard into the chop. In the Portsmouth Handicap system the FolkBoat is reckoned to be 5% faster than the Longbow, but in the ISC it is rated as 5% slower. In other words it has a beneficial handicap under the ISC. Jester could do well. Any FolkBoat should do well, but not have the impact of the Jester name. Perhaps rename one as ‘Joker’? In 3 out of 4 years the smaller boats with the later start times seem to have the advantage so a 30+ foot boat probably wouldn’t be justified. There are other boats that could do well, like the Hunter 232 and could scare a few people. It could be a cheap option in the right weather conditions.

The Island Race is not the total or only answer to junk rig publicity, but it is a fun day out and a good result would be a big help in dispelling the public opinion that junk rig boats are slow (which unfortunately most are). I find it great to have Bermudan sailors go out of their way to complement Poppy when we out sail them.

To sail in any of the big official races the boat would have to have a more official handicap, and they all penalise sails with more than 3 sides. The Jester Challenge is kind in that respect. It’s a case of picking the test and enjoying it.

 

Cheers, Slieve

Ketil, thank you for your thoughts.  You have a way with words!  Also you have the regatta experience that I do not.  I have only ever entered two races:  OSTAR 2009 and AZAB 2011.  I understand your comment about the IOR being about the handicap not the speed.  However, the Island Sailing Club (ISC) handicap is specific to the Round the Island Race and I have no idea how that would work when putting a junk rig onto an established Bermudan rigged design, although I presume that Slieve does know all about it.  However, I suspect that the only way really to make the point about the high performance of the split junk rig, if there is such a point to be made, is not to have it beat something else on handicap but to have it sail faster than a boat exactly similar except for having a Bermudan rig.  What their individual handicaps were would not be so important.  It is interesting that you say that Slieve's split rig put onto Edmund Dantes would have had the mast in the same position as the original Bermudan rig.  This is not what I was expecting, although it is the answer to my question and is very interesting.  The next question might then be:  Are there other boats with Bermudan rigs and keel stepped masts to which that would apply?  For instance would the Nordic Folkboat or any of its variants fit the bill?  If so that might provide the relatively cheap and chearful option and there would be lots of similar Bermudan boats to race against as comparators.  A fin keeled Coromandel or Coribee might be even cheaper and would have Coromandels and Coribees as comparators.  If it were possible to add a split junk rig to an existing boat through the existing deck opening and onto the existing mast step, the original rig could be re-instated at any later time, so maintaining the existing market value of the original boat.  (This ignores for the moment the question of oval Bermudan mast versus round junk rigged mast.  It also ignores the statement that the split junk rig mast would need to be taller than the Bermudan mast and therefore might have to have a greater diameter.)  In other words, the worst case for the long term cost of the exercise might be the cost of the mast and split rig, and even that might later be sold second hand.  So, for a Coromandel or Coribee it might be possible to do the exercise for some thousands of pounds, but not need tens of thousands of pounds.  It seems that boats as small as a Coribee are allowed to compete in the Round the Island Race; the web site says that "Any boat ... may enter ..."   However, to develop the point one would then need a boat over 30 foot which would be eligible for the Fastnet, AZAB, OSTAR etc. 

I thought that it was a good article and that the split rig is a very exciting development.  Well done Slieve! 

 

I presume that so far it has only been seen by those who have got  hold of a paper copy of the magazine.  Would it be possible to have it reproduced by the JRA? 

 

As regards mistakes, I could not spot the spelling error, but did spot that in two places, one in the body of the text and one in a diagram, the symbol for degrees has been used instead of the symbol for percentage.  However, it is reasonably easy for an informed reader to see what was actually meant rather than what was printed. 

 

I do have a general question for Slieve or any other member better informed than me and it concerns the position of the mast with a split rig of the Poppy type.  The article states:  "Initially the area of the jiblets was calculated at around 25% of the total but, knowing what he has learned since, Slieve would increase it if starting again.  In model yachting a jib area of around 33% in a balanced rig has been found to work and to remain stable."  So the question arises, with say 33% of a split rig permanently forward of the mast, would the mast have to be set further aft than with a traditional western junk rig? 

 

There seem to be two aspects to this.  Firstly, to put a split rig onto an existing junk rigged boat, might one have to move the mast aft?  Secondly, if modifying a Bermudan rigged boat, say a Contessa 32 with a keel stepped mast, might it be possible to retain the existing mast position to make use of the existing mast step and through deck hole?  (I am aware that the hole in the deck of a Contessa 32 is in fact oval not circular, but that is a perhaps a second order consideration!)  (I think that the answer to both those questions is "No" but would be interested to have any views.) 

 

In Newsletter 57, September 2011, Edward Hooper, our Hon Sec wrote:  "My dream is to see not just 'Poppy', but at least 5 or 6 junk rigged boats in the Round the Island Race 2012.  My ambition is to help one of them win that race.  Folkboats and Contessa's have useful handicaps, and 'Poppy' has shown it can be done.  Any members who are tempted, please consider it seriously.  I would love to help." 

 

In the PBO article, the author, David Harding, wrote:  "If someone could be persuaded to try it on a slightly sportier boat, we would have a chance to see what it can really do." 

 

The juxtaposition of the ideas above set my thought processes running.  I don't think it will be me doing it because, having just got in all the bills for repairs to our boat post AZAB, our sailing money pot has run out. 

 

Our Sunbird 32 has a schooner junk rig.  However, in the deck moulding it does have the position apparently for a through deck for a keel stepped mast.  Versions of the boat were also produced with junk rigged sloop and Bermudan sloop.  I am not sure if the masts for these two were both keel stepped in the same position or if the Bermudan was deck stepped and if so it might have been at a different position presumably further aft.  I am certainly not about to strip out our schooner rig and replace it with a sloop, even if the deck and keel positions are there to accommodate it. 

 

However, it might just make some sense for someone to find the cheapest Contessa boat or hull and put on a split junk rig to make an exciting cruiser-racer ...

 

Annie Hill wrote:I wish you were right, Roy.  It has been made abundantly clear to me that until I start sailing a white plastic sloop (and loading it down with completely unnecessary electronic gadgets about whose lack of reliability I can then complain) I need not expect the yachting comics to publish anything that I write.  By junk-rigging Fantail I blew the opportunity!

And while they're busy not publishing anything you write, they're also busy not publishing anything I want to read. :-(

Thanks for the explanation of not being able to give us notice of the article.  Once more we are reminded of the unequal relationship with the press!  I suppose we are lucky to have had a fairly even-handed write up of a junk related topic.

Regards,

Roy.