Im experamenting with a junkette rig ,ie I am using masts with sail tracks , use two ropes to get the sail up , one for the sail and one for the yard .       Ive had probs with battons   and a sail sticking on a track , but im slowly sorting them out .     my experience is negligble with this rig so im playing by ear .    I will push it to the limit and if its no good I wil de fault to true junk rig .   

Peter Scandling wrote:Do we actually have any members trying out other unstayed rigs?

I use Matt Layden's roller reefing standing lug sail on the Paradox sharpie he designed.  I described it in the newsletter a while back.

There used to be a website at http://smartsailing.se/English/index.htm/ that described a more high tech version of a roller reefing main.  It had an unstayed, rotating mast, full length battens, a box around the boom that was fixed at a right angle to the mast (it is even possible that it did not move at all relative to the mast), metal hooks at the ends of the battens, and a sliding car with a bar those hooks could hook into.  To reef, you just released the halyard.  The spring-loaded boom would roll up the sail.  When the next batten reached the level of the boom, the hook at the end would push the cross bar on the sliding car back a little bit, then a bungee would pull it forward again to pull it over the hook.  I forget the arrangement at the luff at the sail, but there was some automatic hook there as well.  Tighten the halyard, and you're set.

I wrote to the inventor when I discovered the website, inviting him to write an article for the JRA Newsletter.  I never got a reply.  But doesn't Google archive everything?  Is it possible to retrieve the old site?

There is also the Omer soft wing sail: http://www.omerwingsail.com/

Peter Estrup and Joan Bergstrom patented an unbattened lug equivalent of Slieve's split junk, or if you prefer, a lug sail version of a balestron rig: http://www.balancedrig.com/.  Perhaps one of the people who market the rig now could be invited to publish with the JRA.  There is a brochure, but it's marketing blurb.

The proa designer Rob Denney is working on a telescoping unstayed wing mast.  He hasn't updated www.harryproa.com since June 2008, preferring to post news on the Yahoo harryproa discussion group.  He also bulds unstayed carbon masts for balestron rigs, and says he can build such a rig for less money than a stayed alloy rig.  Cheap carbon masts might be interesting for junkies, to better feed the habit.

Regards

Robert Biegler

In fact, I've just edited the Home page, now you've brought it to my attention. How difficult it is to keep everything up to date, all the time.

"Junk Rig Association (JRA) aims to encourage the development of the junk rig and other un-stayed and/or battened cruising rigs"  

Gary, that is my point.  As an association we aim to promote the development of all unstayed cruising rigs.  But do we actually do this? 

Of course the lug sail is a relative of the 'Chinese' lug or junk.

Peter

Brian

Thanks for the reply.  I am aware that there is a great deal of development of the junk rig by members, and a few are trying wingsails.... I was really trying to find out if anyone is 'fiddling' with lugs, sprit rigs, crab claws or are any other alternative unstayed rigs. 

Peter