Hi guys
I’ve been following this thread with a bit of concern as I feel a number of the points being made are not necessarily accurate. I am currently continuing the write up on the split junk rig, and am trying to put detailed information of a wide range of subjects into it.
The more I learn the more I realise that there is a lot of information and ideas that should be put into print, but unfortunately there are only a few hours in the day to devote to boats. For example the shelf foot sail as being offered commercially has excess material in it and will never look good in light conditions if built with a reasonable amount of camber. Unfortunately Chris Scanes did not listen to the detail when I told him how I developed the idea and used it in the jibs for Poppy. Shelf foot is not necessarily the easiest way to build a cambered rig, but it is the easiest to understand. In the split rig write up I plan to expand on these points and plan to cover building information on a range of methods. I also plan to expand on the available information on achieving efficient camber shapes. I suggested the arc of a circle forward and straight line aft shape to a couple of enquirers over two years ago but don’t know how they worked out. Unfortunately I didn’t have time to give more detail and suggested it as a close approximation.
I find the idea of having a mobile sewing machine and stationary material quite scary. How would you sew a straight line and then sew a curved line? I wrote an article in one of the Newsletters on making sails at home and have added information to it in the SJ write up. It was easy enough to build a big sail in the garden room working on the carpeted floor without any outside help. There was no problem having a stationary machine and steering a double rolled sail with one hand while the other pressed the foot pedal. Big sails are built of numerous small panels. It’s the finishing off that takes time, but most of that is round the edges which are easier to work at.
Incidentally, I am happy with the way to draw up the jib shapes now for the SJ, and to reinforce them against flogging. They are much better than Bermudan headsails when it comes to flogging. These were the points that discouraged me from doing the write up on the rig earlier, but now I feel I have acceptable answers.
Once again it's bed time,
Good night, Slieve