Graham Cox wrote:
.....................
However, my cambered sail duly arrived and I bent it on. It was a very different beast and initially I both hated and feared it. It had severe negative batten stagger which caused endless grief with tangled sheets for a start and it had none of the docility of the flat sail when hoisting it in a seaway.
.........................
Stavanger, Friday
Graham, I bet that some of the negative-stagger problems you got when changing to cambered panels stems from the forward-raking mast. With the mast raking forward, the mast top, where the halyard goes, will be well forward of the base. Ergo increased negative batten stagger when reefing. Conversely, with an aft-raking mast any tendency to negative batten stagger will be more or less reduced.
Both Johanna and Malena have/had vertical or a tiny bit aft-raking masts. There is still some tendency to negative batten stagger in their rigs, but only moderate, so semi-short batten parrels will handle it without friction problems. On the dinghy Broremann the mast rakes quite a bit aft and batten stagger is no problem. I also noticed on Broremann that there was next to no load on the tack parrel.
One could argue that a sail rigged this way would be reluctant to swing out in light winds, but I never experienced that as a problem in Broremann. As long as one doesn’t use heavy solid wooden battens, that should not be a big problem. Broremann’s sail was by far the best-behaved junksail I have owned.
When watching photos of Chinese junks, I never find main or mizzen masts with forward rake, only on some (not all) fore masts. Quite the contrary; several main and mizzen masts can be seen with a slight aft rake.
My advice is therefore to go for vertical masts, or with a bit aft rake if the boat’s deck layout and interior permit. The added bonus with a bit aft rake is added clearances between the clew and the sea when squaring out the sail.
Cheers, Arne