Very nice! Smaller is always better.

David Webb wrote:

Looking good Graham.

I look forward to seeing her when I get to Australia early next month.

All the best, David.

Thanks, David.  I'll take you for a sail and we can see how the junkette rig works.  I've seen Youtube videos of Blue Moon creaming along at 4 knots in a 10 knot breeze.  I am planning to get a large nylon drifter with about 4 hanks on its luff for really light winds. No more motorsailing for me except for short distances to and from anchorages.  Both because I am tired of motorsailing and because with a 2-stroke outboard motor I can't!

Annie Hill wrote:

Oh Graham, that is just fantastic!  I am so pleased for you, especially to have a rig so easy to handle on a type of boat that you are actually rather fond of.  This must make the wrench of parting with Arion a lot easier to handle.  Low maintenance, fun to sail, a capable little boat: what's not to like?  And as Gary points out - no room for lots of 'stuff', so the boat will be even more fun to sail!  Less is More!

Yes, I am thrilled.  I asked Shaun to sell Blue Moon to me when I secured an offer for Arion several weeks ago but he said he was not ready to sell her.  He has been helping me look for boats in the meantime, but finally decided to let me have her.  She is not cheap, as far as Top Hats go, but the others all have bermudian rigs and have not been set up for cruising.  Blue Moon has an 85 watt solar panel, autopilot, etc.  But mostly that cute rig, beautifully set up for handling from the cockpit.  There is a storm jib, but Shaun just uses the reefed main in strong winds.  He has run under the top two panels of the sail in winds up to 35 knots at times.  I should have the boat by the end of May and cannot wait to play with it!  Shaun toyed with the idea of making the boat unsinkable but gave it away because of the loss of space.  I suspect I will end up coming to the same conclusion and opt for turning the dinghy into a lifeboat.  I will still have to practice my minimalism!  Interestingly, Blue Moon is not a conversion, the boat was built with the junkette rig.

Oh Graham, that is just fantastic!  I am so pleased for you, especially to have a rig so easy to handle on a type of boat that you are actually rather fond of.  This must make the wrench of parting with Arion a lot easier to handle.  Low maintenance, fun to sail, a capable little boat: what's not to like?  And as Gary points out - no room for lots of 'stuff', so the boat will be even more fun to sail!  Less is More!

I have just reached an agreement with my friend, Shaun Fellowes, to buy his junkette-rigged Top Hat yacht, Blue Moon.  He will be delivering it up the NSW coast to me in about 3 weeks.  Shaun has sailed Blue Moon extensively on the east coast of Australia and the rig is well tested.  I look forward to exploring the boat and will report on the rig in due course in a JRA magazine article.  It was a close-run thing.  There are few junk rigged yachts around here and for a while it looked like I was heading back into bermudian rig.  Click for a larger photo of Blue Moon.