The Pros and Cons of the Different Types of Junk Rigs

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  • 27 Mar 2014 21:26
    Reply # 1526495 on 1525016
    Georg, the best of all is: if you can't be with the one you love, love the one you're with, or if you prefer: just enjoy the boat you have.

    Once you've sailed your l'il boat for a few hundred miles you'll know a lot more about her.  A couple of thousand miles under the keel and you will be able to make more informed judgements about your particular boat.  If you feel after all these miles, that you would like to improve performance, the obvious cours of action would be to make a new sail with camber, using your existing mast, yard, boom and battens.  The old sail will probably be a bit weary anwyay, so you can justify the time and expense.  It's an experiment you can pat yourself on the back for; it may improve your sailing performance; it won't cost too much or take too long and you will learn a lot and get enormous satisfaction from the exercise.

    The biggest mistake most wannabe junkies make is sitting in their armchairs talking about the perfect rig.  You have the boat, so now just go off and spend the summer enjoying it.  And then write a nice article for the magazine telling us how much fun you had and what you learnt! 

    Happy sailing :-) (at anchor aboard Fantail in beautiful, calm, sunny Whangaruru - harbour of the owls)
  • 27 Mar 2014 20:30
    Reply # 1526428 on 1525016
    Deleted user
    thank you – so best seems to wait…
  • 27 Mar 2014 14:35
    Reply # 1526131 on 1525941
    Georg Warnecke wrote:
    now – can i say then that the split-rig sail is better for cruising but arne's might better fit my needs?
    No, we can't say that - yet. There is not yet a large body of experience with cruising under a split rig, with all its pros and cons in that usage fully listed, and all the things you have to do to make the sail fit for cruising fully described. Most of the experience with this rig is in racing and sheltered water day-sailing. I wish that someone would take it offshore cruising, and then come here to tell us all about it; but they haven't - yet.
  • 27 Mar 2014 13:27
    Reply # 1526080 on 1525016
    Deleted user
    Looks to me what you gain with the aero junk (easy to make flat sail) you lose by having to fabricate those complicated booms. But the fact you don't need to make partners and step in a new position helps. But I think that is not too hard. The battens for a cambered sail are easy too, cut alu tubes to length, drill a little hole each end and finished. (Use the holes to hold the shackles, which the sails are fastened to.) 

    Which ever you choose (adding foil shape to sail), it's worth it, we've been doing lots of sailing to windward in light airs and Bermudans boats are no faster. It's odd that our boat being a schooner is still good to windward, must be a testament to the simple barrel shape sail. But I've never sailed a flat junk, so can't compare. 
  • 27 Mar 2014 07:04
    Reply # 1525941 on 1525016
    Deleted user
    i'll be really helped here!
    thank you very much, indeed!!
    i mainly thought about the differences of arne's, paul's and the sunbird "90's" rig…
    and indeed i chose the junk rig for the reasons that most people come to it, annie.
    yet the more i learn the more i think about some tweaking and tuning… :-))
    so paul's rig fascinated me because originally i was after an aero rig like this one.
    in many way i'm satisfied with my old rig but sometimes when there's just light wind i wish i could go a little faster…
    so it seems i should talk to arne about his rigg – or better with sebastian… :-))
    now – can i say then that the split-rig sail is better for cruising but arne's might better fit my needs?
    Last modified: 27 Mar 2014 07:51 | Deleted user
  • 26 Mar 2014 21:42
    Reply # 1525705 on 1525648
    Paul McKay wrote:The pillowed rig (Arne Kvernland) seems to work very well but is complex to make at home.
    More commonly know as cambered sails, Georg.  I would dispute that they are complex to make at home.  Many people have made them on a domestic sewing machine on the living room floor or equivalent.  (Paul had his Aero-junk sails made by a professional sailmaker, so it's hard to tell how easy or otherwise his sail would be to make at home.)

    Arne's designs also have the advantages that:
    • you can use all the hardware from a flat H/McL sail;
    • they are simple and robust because they are essentially a H/McL sail with shape;
    • because they are a H/McL sail, they have years of testing on many boats, which makes them an obvious choice for offshore work.  
    Arne is strictly a day sailer and a man who likes his boats to perform well, so they certainly fill that niche, too. 

    As Paul so clearly pointed out, each variation of junk rig has its pros and cons.

    As to compromises: if we assume that you are looking at this rig for the reasons that most people come to it: ease of handling, reliability, simplicity and avoidance of foredeck work, then I should say that Arne's rigs are the New Norm.

    Of course, the classic, flat sails work 'well enough' for many junkies to have covered tens of thousands of  happy and trouble-free miles, with no wish to trade what they have for a possible improvement in ability to go to windward.  It's also interesting to watch the innovators at work and, thankfully, there are lots of people who like to try out new ideas from which we can all benefit.  As ever, it's a case of 'you pays your money and you makes your choice'.

    Last modified: 26 Mar 2014 21:51 | Anonymous member
  • 26 Mar 2014 20:34
    Reply # 1525648 on 1525016
    Hi Georg, the short answer is yes. Every rig, boat, car, house and I dare say, woman is a compromise between what you would like and what you can actually afford, manage or put up with. I should say at this point that these are my own opinions. There will be plenty of others.
    The flat, original rig is good offshore and for long voyages but could be frustrating for weekend use.  
    Hinged battens. Better performance but seem to have gone out of favour. Perhaps too difficult to make or unreliable for the long term.
    The pillowed rig (Arne Kvernland) seems to work very well but is complex to make at home.
    The split-rig (Slieve McGalliard) also seems to work well but is just as complex to make and slightly more complex to design.

    The above rigs all have straight simple battens, most with complex sails. The following have wishbone battens with simple flat sails.

    The wishbone rig. This time you have the original flat sail but the wishbone battens give the camber. Faster than the original but the batten width could make one side of the boat impossible to walk along.
    The AeroJunk Rig. This is my latest design that I got working successfully last year. It is fast, efficient, easy to use and reliable as it survived a gust that laid the boat flat. With this rig it is possible to have the mast further astern than most junks. (With a fractional-rig donor boat it can go in the same place as the original.) I am testing a generic design of this rig for 2014 that will eventually have full dimensional ratios that can be applied for most sizes of rigs. 
    Wing sails. Again use wishbone battens and there are claims for its efficiency but I am not convinced yet that it is any better than my AeroJunk.

    So, as you can see, lots of choice. Better you decide first which compromise you can put up with! Paul McKay
  • 26 Mar 2014 06:03
    Message # 1525016
    Deleted user
    where can i find the pros and the cons of the different junk-rig types?
    i just "discovered" the aero-junk and i wondered if every junk rig has it's own pros and cons…
    Last modified: 27 Mar 2014 23:02 | Deleted user
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