SLACKTIDE was able to beat in 45kt with unlimited fetch, making about 1/2 knot good, deep reefed over neutral current.

As you can see from the icon, she's a box barge with leeboardlike off-centerboards (work on both lee and windward sides). Our JR is dumbed down to match (only running sheets and haulyards). The only concession to efficiency is that we remove purchase from the reefed bundle in heavy winds, reducing twist.

If JR can drive us into the wind, it can drive anyone!  8)

Dave Z

Note: It must be said that the upper panel accentuates the CrabClaw shape, and we deep-cut the leech to help bring the CE inboard. I believe both these features help.

Stavanger, Sunday

I have found that the 3-panel top section  of my sails are quite good for upwind work.  In my 3 ton Johanna (1.4-ton keel), it takes a F7 before I need to drop this much sail ( 3 panels= 21sqm). Tacking angle is wider than when sailing 7-up in a breeze, but we definitely go to windward. With my new lazyjacks setup the yard and upper battens are well supported by the lee topping lift so the twist is moderate. The biggest brake when sailing to windward in Johanna is the 25cm thick mast. Its “sail area” of 1.6sqm can be felt when going to windward in strong winds. I have never gybed in these winds, but tacked around instead.

My 740kg Frøken Sørensen is much more tippy so when we, on her third trip, went out in F5-F6, with strong gusts on top of it, we also ended up on only 3 panels (about 9sqm) . This worked well, and we made a reasonable progress to windward. However, when we dropped to just two panels, just to see, we felt underpowered. Here you can see how the top section rigs.  The use of a little camber in the top panels helps in keeping the leech taut and avoid fluttering.

Mind you, the strong-wind sails I refer to were in sheltered waters. Close-hauled sailing offshore is a very different game. There I have found that the seastate rather than the wind is the limiting factor. This is why I like the full-keel boats (Contessa 26, Vertue) better for this work: They let one sail slowly to windward without losing too much ground in making leeway. A fin keel is more likely to stall each time the boat is being stopped.

Conclusion: The JR is definitely a good upwind rig in strong winds. In these conditions I really congratulate myself for having installed it. 

Cheers, Arne

Mark, I don't know if you have followed my posts about converting Arion to junk sloop from bermudian cutter.  I was a bit intimidated by how different it all was at first but reminded myself that a legion of veteran sailors had successfully voyaged with the rig before me.  My experience with the rig has been that my cambered sail works just as well to windward as the bermudian rig did, more so in fact because the boat stands up to its canvas so much better than before, allowing me to drive the boat a lot harder.  I always put a tie around the bundle when deep reefed.  As David says, it helps with sail shape but it also guards against fan ups when gybing.  With my sail deeply reefed, the rig feels rock solid and inspires tremendous confidence.  Knowing how easy it is to raise or lower a panel as needed only adds to my sense of snug security.   Having experienced cruising under junk rig, I would never go back to a bermudian rig.

A HM sail reefed down to the top two triangles is actually quite an efficient shape, and is very manageable when going to windward in half a gale. It's better if a sail tie is put around the whole bundle of sheetlets, so that they all pull together, and don't let the sail sag off, but that's easy to do. 

The standard junk sail plan gives a very low aspect sail when reefed down to its smallest size.  In theory this should not perform as well as a higher aspect sail up wind.