The Junk Rig community features a wide range of boats, rigs and ideas.  We like to showcase one boat on a regular basis and are interested in hearing from any members who would be prepared to share some photos and details of their pride and joy. 

December 2015 – Graham Cox's Arion

With her sturdy lines and distinctive black sail, Graham Cox's steel Tom Thumb 24 Arion is somewhat iconic within the JRA. Having voyaged in the Pacific aboard a variety of craft, from a 6m bermudian sloop to a 35 tonne gaff schooner, it was always Graham's intention when he bought Arion's hull and deck in 1996 to give her a junk rig. In 2010-11, after sailing her for some years with her Bermudan rig, he went ahead with the plan.

Arion was given an aluminium utility-pole mast 200mm dia x 5mm wall, tapering to 110mm diameter at the top, sleeved for the first 1.5m and raked forward by 3º. The Hasler/McLeod sail, modified by Graham and David Tyler, is of black Odyssey III fabric. Using darts sewn into the luff and leech, the camber is 8-10% in the four lower panels, decreasing progressively in the upper three. The mast has been trouble-free, but after breaking an under-specified aluminium yard he built a new one from 100 x 3mm tube. The halyard is attached to the yard with a three point span to spread the load.

After some modification to luff parrels, Graham reported that the sail set beautifully and the camber seems just right. It has a fixed balance, about 15% at the tack decreasing to 10% at the throat, and the boat seems perfectly balanced on all points of sail. Driving hard downwind at maximum hull speed, 6 - 6.5 knots, in winds of 15 knots gusting to 20, showed the boat to be as well-mannered as it always was, with no sign of wanting to round up. He was delighted with the rig and amazed at how powerful it was.  Even in light airs the boat sails to windward as well as he could remember it ever doing before the conversion.

If ocean cruising he might be tempted by a flat sail, but a certain amount of close-quarters sailing is always required, even if just entering and leaving port. Sailing well in light airs and smooth seas is one of his great pleasures, and the light, soft Odyssey III material greatly enhances light air performance. He likens it to sailing with a drifter, yet the sail is strong enough to withstand considerable abuse*. Graham declares his rig conversion a success, and believes that the junk rig will keep him sailing longer than he might do with any other rig.

*Note: For the reason why Arion may soon revert to a flat junk sail, see this forum thread.

November 2015 – Arne Kverneland's Frøken Sørensen

Frøken Sørensen is a 6.5m 1987 Greif 650 ‘Jollenkreuzer’ converted by Arne during spring, 2013 from a 15sqm Bermudan to a 20sqm Junk rig. Arne’s initial sail drawing (left) shows that although he increased the sail area by 33%, the mast is considerably shorter than the original (whose top is shown at the tip of the yard). After stretching along the battens to reduce wrinkles, the 9% camber was reduced to 8% - vertical camber between the battens was better.

The 22 x 2mm battens are on the light side and some upward bending occurred. Slackening the Hong Kong parrels and installing a throat hauling parrel acting on the yard and batten 2 allows a light tug on the THP to remove the diagonal creases in each panel.

Performance is good in all wind strengths. She is livelier than the heavily ballasted Johanna and Arne has to remind himself of FS’s ballast ratio (zero), but she has enough stability, based on her wide beam and flat bottom, to carry her sail. She is quite stiff until her max righting angle at 25º but from then it deteriorates. An easily-reefed JR is just the thing, so Arne has always preferred to over-rig his boats - the first panel is reefed at around F3/F4. Arne has also recently fitted a fan-up preventer (described on his page on the JRA site and in the most recent issue of the JRA magazine).

With an effective centreboard she points well, tacking mostly just outside 90º. The rudder is huge with a fine, streamlined section and has plenty of grip. FS is not directionally stable - she will turn quickly and sharply if the tiller is let go. A tiller brake, in the style of Broremann but with stronger bungees. allows her to steer herself for a while, providing a steady hand while Arne attends to the sail.

The little centre-boarder has further lowered Arne’s threshold for going sailing. The sail is so easy to hoist and lower that he do not think twice about doing so several times a day. The same is true of the sheet and two running parrels (THP and YHP). The 2.3hp outboard at only 14kg is easily swung up and down with one hand. It starts first pull and is more than powerful enough. Fuel consumption is low - 'measured in teacups'. Arne says the consumption of coffee and tea on board has certainly been many times higher.

October 2015 – David and Rosemary Webb’s Arcadian

Arcadian is a Cara 49, built in Sweden in 1986 for the level rating 50 ft. class. As Spirit of the Deep she crossed the Atlantic in the first ARC race, winning her class, and then cruised, chartered and raced in the Caribbean for ten years, before arriving in New Zealand in 2000.
 
Revisiting New Zealand in 2001, David decided to buy Spirit of the Deep. He had her moved to Whangarei and had the necessary work done to bring her up to survey, together with interior modifications. David had moved to New Zealand in November 2002 and bought a property in Whangarei – he also met Rosemary, who was later to become his wife. They took delivery of Spirit in November 2002, in time to charter for the Americas Cup.  In 2007 they decided to live aboard, but Spirit needed a lot of work to meet their needs.

One requirement was to make the boat easier to handle, so David designed a junk schooner rig and a new shallower keel. The reverse counter stern was removed and the hull extended to a new vertical transom. The existing cockpits and bridge deck were replaced with a new cockpit extending all the way to the stern, with a transom gate to a new stern boarding platform. The interior was modified, creating a workshop in the bow, a rebuilt forward head, extended seating and a reconfigured main saloon with a wood burning stove. The two aft cabins were converted to a master stateroom, with a head to port and a pantry/galley extension to starboard. After 3 years work, and having fitted a new deckhouse, masts, keel and rudders Spirit was renamed Arcadian.

David says:
After her launch we lived aboard in the Town Basin while sorting out the new rig. We met Kurt Ulmer of Mehitabel, who introduced us to the Junk Rig Association. We lived aboard very comfortably and became quite involved with the Junk Rig Association. Our first trip away from Whangarei Harbour was for the Junk Rig meet in Mahurangi in 2012. We had a glorious sail down in company with Pacific Spray and Mehitabel, met a lot of new junkies and Arcadian started her duties as party boat for the Whangarei area junk rig meets.

We have cruised between the Hauraki Gulf and Whangaruru on the East Coast of New Zealand for the last three years, but health issues have forced us to move back ashore and put Arcadian back on the market. We are planning on building a smaller, trailerable boat that will meet our present needs more closely, junk rigged of course!

September 2015 – John and Suzy Lee Cornicelli’s Persephone

This month's BOTM is something a little larger and perhaps more conventional - John and Suzy Lee Cornicelli's 42' Colvin Gazelle, Persephone.
 
John says:

Persephone is a modified, Tom Colvin-designed "Gazelle", pilothouse junk schooner.  Her steel hull was built in St Augustine, Florida, but we found her in Galveston needing complete refit and re-rigging.  After two years of patient advice from JRA members, and from local steel boat captains, we were sailing.  Our experimental auxiliary is an 11-kilowatt electric motor mated to a controllable-pitch propeller, salvaged from an Sabb diesel.Unable to decide on a name, we gave the job to my 10-year-old daughter Catherine.  With a committee of friends, she examined a library of Greek mythology, Harry Potter and Patrick O'Brian.  Greek mythology won, thank god:  I couldn't bear radioing Hermione Granger to the Coast Guard.

I grew up sailing small boats and working riverboats; Suzy (right) is from Florida, so we’re both attracted to water and although we’re new to schooners, Persephone has been patient with us.  We sail the Potomac and Chesapeake Bay, with challenging tides, currents, radical depth changes and fluky winds, but we enjoy teaching the kids boat handling, navigation, and seamanship, supervised by our morale officer, Sally the Wonder Puppy (right).  Handing a 50' schooner's helm to Valerie (age 9), while we make coffee, is pretty easy with junk rig, although an unplanned jibe can turn into Horatio Hornblower wearing ship.  She is very a forgiving vessel: tacking or wearing are single-handed jobs, and repairs under sail are easy.  Learning to balance our schooner has been most rewarding and Persephone tells us when she's happy.  We've run aground only twice: on her maiden voyage and in front of George Washington’s house, god help us.
 
One day we will do long distance cruising, but for now the voyaging world comes to us: after the motor boaters go home on Sunday, leaving us alone with our little bays and rivers, they’re replaced by yachts passing through during the hurricane season, sailing from Europe to the Caribbean and back.  We get the chance to visit boats and share recipes and wine.

August 2015 – Kevin McNeill’s Kuai Le

This month we feature a small junk inspired by a combination of traditional Chinese and North American boatbuilding - Kevin McNeill's Kuai Le.

A son of Lancashire, UK, Kevin McNeill is an ex-Naval Officer, aspiring boat designer, and sailor “well past his prime” now resident in Canada.  An alumnus of the Westlawn School of Yacht Design, he has designed and built several boats, often inspired by the vision of Phil Bolger. This is particularly true of one of his most recent -  Kuai Le - a design which was also informed by the ideas of Jim Michalak and Dmitri Leforestier.

Kevin says:
“Kuai Le means ‘joy’ in Mandarin.  I got the name from a Yoyo Ma Christmas melody.   She is 20’0” LOA, 6'6" beam, 9" draught with water ballast tanks full." 

The final concept drawing, after many iterations, is shown left. The sheer line, inspired by Dmitri Leforestier’s Jonques de Plaisance, was designed to give that junk like look. Kevin also added false davits to get the attachments for the mizzen sheets well aft. The end result is a boat that's 20 feet LOA but only 12.5 feet LWL with a cockpit 7.5' long with a 6.5' foot cuddy with just under 4' headroom at the center line. She’s big enough to carry four adults for day sailing and two for over night. The cabin top is open, “a la Bolger and Michalak”, all the way to the main mast and is canted to the gunnels which increases visibility forward.

With the designed waterline the displacement is just under 2600 lbs. Of that 500 lbs is water ballast, 200ish lbs is Kevin, the hull is 750lbs, rudder and dagger board 50lbs, masts, spars and sails 80 lbs leaving just over a 1000 lbs for gear, passengers etc.

Afloat she looked like this.  Kevin says she sails well but is very sensitive to weight distribution. This is a result of the Bolger penchant for the curve of the bottom matching the curve of the sides.  She resides during the summer at Kevin’s mooring in Ladysmith BC, from which one can sail the Gulf Islands.

The full story of Kuai Le’s design and build can be found at Duckworks.  For more information on Kevin’s designs see the KMN Designs web site.

July 2015 - George Revilla's North Atlantic 29 Pake'.

A 70 year old singlehander, George has been sailing Pake'  for almost 20 years in Southern California.

He writes:

My previous boat was a Pheon built Vancouver 27 which I sailed from England.  If I could, I’d live and cruise on a boat full time, but circumstances dictate otherwise.

Launched in 1979, Pake', named by the builder (apparently Hawaiian pidgin for ‘Frugal Chinaman’) was the first North Atlantic 29 built.  Designed by Angus Primrose and Blondie Hasler as a larger version of Jester, she has a full keel and displaces 12,000 lbs and construction is cold-moulded mahogany over laminated oak, all bonded with epoxy.  The boat was covered with polyester and fibreglass to form a female mould from which five GRP boats were subsequently built.   The pramhoods, reels, mast step etc, are all as illustrated in Practical Junk Rig.
   
Pake' was found completely neglected, the fairing compound cracked and the GRP blistering below the waterline. NA29s were too expensive to build and the builder had neglected her for years.  Birds were nesting in the rotting sails, but underneath all that mess, was a fineboat inexcellent condition.  Those rotten sails worked well, locally, for quite some time: a testament to junk rig.  Pake’ is now restored to better than new, both functionally and cosmetically.

The flat sail is 429 sq. ft, but with a decent breeze, Pake' does better than most boats her size and would be a good in her intended offshore role.  When the Volvo died, I took the opportunity to install an electric motor, which has been totally reliable and suits me well.

I increasingly appreciate the advantages of junk rig as I grow older.  Small and simple enough to maintain to a high standard, Pake' is easy and comfortable to sail, and to my eyes, a pretty sight when I’m rowing back ashore.

June 2015 - Shemaya Laurel's Auklet

This month we feature another Reddish-rigged junk - Shemaya Laurel's Auklet, a 20' Bolger Glasshouse.

Shemaya writes:
Auklet is a Bolger designed Glasshouse Chebacco. There are several variations on the Chebacco design, and this one has a long, shallow, ballasted keel instead of a centerboard.  Loaded the way it was intended, the draft would be about 18 inches – it’s more by the time I’ve put several months’ worth of gear and supplies on board (we’ve now raised the waterline twice). The boat is roughly 20 feet long, and perfect for single-handed coastal cruising.  Even well-stocked she’ll make about 5½ knots in a good wind, and has taken me quite nicely between the Connecticut River and downeast Maine (USA).

The junk rig is new this past year; sea trials began in mid-September, 2014, and went on for about a month before the New England fall chill really set in.  I’m looking forward to more extensive sailing with the new rig when the weather warms up again in the spring.

We didn’t make a lot of adjustments for the junk conversion – the masts are in their original positions, with just some forward rake for the mainmast.  We did add about 35 square feet of additional sail area more than the original design; this helps in getting about primarily under sail, with a small electric outboard as an auxiliary.  If all goes well, in another year or so we’ll see Nova Scotia up close, and one day I’d like to get as far as Newfoundland, and …

As for myself, I live in the northeast of USA, part of the time on the boat.  Previously, there were jobs, and some health issues; now, I’ve finally reached an age where saying I’m “retired” almost makes sense.

For more on the boat and our travels, see www.sailingauklet.com

May 2015 - Anthony Swanston's Wild Fox

This month we feature Anthony Swanston's boat, Wild Fox , a Jay Benford design made famous by Annie Hill who has written and blogged extensively about the voyaging that she and Pete Hill did in Badger, their boat of this design. In fact the design has taken on the name of their boat and boats of this design are now known as "Jay Benford Badgers".

Anthony writes:
Wild Fox was designed by Jay Benford and built in 2007, by a grumpy old Pole in Gdansk. She is 37 feet 7 inches on deck and displaces about eight tons in cruising trim. I left Northern Ireland in 2009 and am presently in Brisbane, Australia having logged about 30,000 nautical miles around the Atlantic, through the Panama Canal and then across the Pacific.

All in all the boat has performed well and has suited me greatly as a single hander. With only one sleeping cabin there is no wasted space and the raised decks give a wide and airy feel to the boat down below. Altogether a great boat to live on. I began to write an article about my battens but when it started to make War and Peace look like a short story I dropped the project.

I used to have cambered sails but I couldn't live with the Hong Kong parrels. I am now back to flat sails and aluminum battens with timber inserts at the luff. As I said, it's a long story and this is batten version five in seven years.

Having sailed for more than 50 years I was not expecting too many surprises when I set off.  But the one thing I totally underestimated was the wear and tear on a live-aboard boat, particularly on my varnish work in the tropics.  I have far too much varnish.  I keep telling myself that my next boat will be ferro-cement with pebble-dashed topsides and railway line as a rubbing strake ...

April 2015 - Shirley Carter's Speedwell of Hong Kong

This month we feature Shirley Carter's boat,  Speedwell of Hong Kong , a Laurent Giles designed, Vertue: No. 44. Built in 1952 by the Wing-on-Shing shipyard, she is 25ft long, with solid teak planking on camphor frames and a cast-iron keel.

Shirley writes:

When I first became her proud owner, in December 1998, she was Bermudian rigged with roller furling jib. In 2000, I moved her to Port Owen on the Western Cape coast and spent over a year refitting her for ocean cruising, getting invaluable help and encouragement from Pete and Annie Hill, who were building China Moon at that time.
My first ocean crossing in 2002, from South Africa to Brazil, was a wet trip. Something had to be done and when I found myself in Trinidad in 2004, sitting out the hurricane season, I used the time to completely encapsulate the hull with fibreglass and epoxy. 10 years on, and against all received wisdom, the work has been a total success. Having experienced some sailing on China Moon, I was thoroughly convinced of the advantages of junk rig and when I had finished the work on the hull, Pete helped me to do the conversion, making the new mast in Cape Town and shipping it across to Chaguaramas on the deck of the peripatetic China Moon. The mast is made of salvaged Honduras mahogany and is tapered, hollow and square-sectioned. It stands in a tabernacle which is firmly planted on the keel and it can be lowered and raised without the need for a crane.
The sail is fan-shaped as per the Vincent Reddish design and has gone from straight battens, to jointed, to straight-with-baggy-panels, and is now happily back to the simplest arrangement possible with a flat sail and rigid battens. Self-steering is effected with a Navik windvane; Speedwell’s long keel makes her easy to keep on track and she is also very docile when hove-to.
Below decks I have kept things pretty basic. The only through-hull fitting is for the engine cooling water. I have no refrigeration and use a single-burner Primus stove for cooking. All-LED lights keep the energy requirements really low. The diesel engine is a 13HP Vetus which I got as a bargain while in Argentina. When I am not cruising in the tropics, I keep warm with a Force 10 Kozy Cabin kerosene heater.
A wonderful seaworthy little ship.  In the words of Eric Hiscock, ‘…one of the finest of small cruisers.’

February 2015 - Lady Arwen - owners Meera & Mark Hibdon

Lady Arwen is a 1963 Rawson 30. She was being used as a houseboat when we found her and required a complete refit and, of course, a modification to junk rig. She is based in Los Angeles Harbor, and used for mostly day sails and occasional visits to Santa Catalina Island.

We owned a Rawson 30 back in the '80s and knew from that experience, that they are rugged, capable, and comfortable sailors. The idea of changing to a JR was planted during the time we own our first Rawson, and it seemed like a good one. We placed an order for a design with Sunbird Yacht Services, but we found the task of actually building the rig beyond us at the time, and began to have doubts that the rig would function properly. So we shelved the idea, put away the plans, and eventually sold our first Rawson 30. Good ideas don’t die easily however. Now in our 60s and looking to retire from the 8 to 5 routine, we decided to pull those junk rig plans down off the shelf and have another go at it. Lady Arwen is the result of that decision.

Once the rig was installed and tested, we knew that idea of many years ago was indeed a good one. The 550 square foot sail is so beautiful against the sky and the way it keeps her moving, even when there is not enough air to even ripple the water, is simply magic. She tacks more eagerly than did our first Rawson, putting to rest the fear that the JR would be difficult. Her flat-cut sail may not have as much power to windward as a camber-cut sail, but honestly, who cares? She does fine, and by the way, has on occasion bested Marconi rigged boats bigger than she. Currently, we are busy adding gear and making small modifications to get her ready to expand her adventures. She is also sporting a new paint scheme which is, sadly, not shown in the photographs.

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