As you would expect: excellent advice from Arne.  There are quite a few members in Scotland with JR boats and I'm sure that once you've actually experienced sailing junk rig, you would feel much more certain about your decision.  While it is quite a big job to convert a boat, by far the biggest issue, IMHO is the mast and partners.  Making the sail, on the other hand is fun and bending it on, fitting the battens and attaching all the lines is very exciting, with the thought that very soon you will be taking her out for her first sail under junk rig!

Arne Kverneland wrote:

Charles

The ideal height of mast or sail does not exist because our needs varies all the time. We just have to decide on a compromise.

If your boat were mine, I would not be sorry to use the present mast height and the proposed sail. That 6-panel sailplan is based on the 7-panel master sailplan with AR=1.95. I have sailed that sail-shape (on my Frøken Sørensen) enough times with reefs in it to know that it works well. With 8-9% camber in her horizontal panel, I bet your boat would do quite well.

Still, I could like to raise your mast 60, or, at most, as much as 120cm to get room for a 7-panel sail with AR around 1.85 to 1.90 (AR=1.90 is what I use on my present Ingeborg).

Roxane has a displacement similar to my old boat, Johanna. However, the ballast of your boat doesn’t sit very deep, so I would not give her a moonraker rig.

In the end, it depends on what you want. If you are to challenge some original Roxane sailors in regattas, then you need the 120cm mast extension. If on the other hand your priority is on easier handling, but still with decent performance, I think that 6-panel JR or a 7-panel rig with 60cm taller mast is better.

Remember, bigger sails means bigger handling forces. You may well be all muscles and bones, for what I know, but I, being close to the lower end of that scale, tend to aim for easy handling, these days.

Arne

Arne

Thanks again for your input.

I think I favour the compromise 60cm taller mast which I think would not be difficult to achieve while changing the rake to vertical.  There are no other Roxanes to challenge within hundreds of miles, I am not all "muscles and bones" and I am keen on easier handling!

But still not decided as to whether to make the change to JR - at least for next season.

Charles

Arne Kverneland wrote:

Charles,

just a fast answer: I guess the quickest fix would be to fit a simple mast tabernacle in the form of an strong aluminium tube. Imagine it ends about 60cm above deck. The original mast is then planted into this tube/ tabernacle. However, down in the tube there is a stop bolt or something which raises the step of the mast with 60cm. The top end of the aluminium tube will still be well below the boom and sail bundle. In effect you then get a 60cm taller rig, which will give you a smarter looking sail, about 3-4sqm bigger than the first one I drew up for you.

Just remember to isolate the carbon mast and the tube well from each other. It seems that carbon, aluminium and seaspray is a bad combination.  Since the aluminium tube is likely to be a bit oversize, compared to the carbon mast, I guess you can give the mast 2-3 “waist belts” of GRP to fit neatly inside the tube. They should provide good (electric) insulation.

Just a thought.

Arne

 

Arne

Thanks for your as usual prompt response and ideas.  I have an alternative idea on heightening the mast but it seems clear from your posts that a taller mast would make the junk rig design easier and more effective.  What do you reckon would be the ideal height?

Arne Kverneland wrote:

Charles,

It may, or may not be so easy to set a junk sail with that much aft rake on the mast. It certainly is outside my narrow frame of experience, so it may call for experiments and re-cutting, etc. Besides, the general warning against aft rake stems from problems with having the sail plus boom, yard and battens, refusing to swing out in light winds: The heavy sail will want to fall back to the centreline (read: causing gybes, back and forth...).

As for aesthetics, I am not the right man to ask. In my book, function beats tidiness. Besides, the three-masted junks in Hong Kong, at least, used do have different rake on all their three masts.

The mizzen could be junk-rigged, of course. However, for simplicity of making and ease of setting, sheeting and furling, I would rather aim for a wide triangular sail with a sprit boom. This would let me adjust the draft of that sail from full to perfectly flat (when at anchor).

Arne

PS: I know, the original Roxane with her standing lug rig looks gorgeous. With a good and strong crew, I bet she sails very well too, but for shorthanded sailing, the JR would no doubt be my choice.

 PPS. I notice now that Irens spells Roxane with one n.

 

Arne

I am still mulling over the junk rig option for my Roxane.  I can see that the aft raked mast makes life difficult; I think it would be possible to get it vertical.  You refer to the mast being short - if (at the same time as changing the rake) the height was increased, would that make the rig design easier?

Charles

Charles,

It may, or may not be so easy to set a junk sail with that much aft rake on the mast. It certainly is outside my narrow frame of experience, so it may call for experiments and re-cutting, etc. Besides, the general warning against aft rake stems from problems with having the sail plus boom, yard and battens, refusing to swing out in light winds: The heavy sail will want to fall back to the centreline (read: causing gybes, back and forth...).

As for aesthetics, I am not the right man to ask. In my book, function beats tidiness. Besides, the three-masted junks in Hong Kong, at least, used do have different rake on all their three masts.

The mizzen could be junk-rigged, of course. However, for simplicity of making and ease of setting, sheeting and furling, I would rather aim for a wide triangular sail with a sprit boom. This would let me adjust the draft of that sail from full to perfectly flat (when at anchor).

Arne

PS: I know, the original Roxane with her standing lug rig looks gorgeous. With a good and strong crew, I bet she sails very well too, but for shorthanded sailing, the JR would no doubt be my choice.

 PPS. I notice now that Irens spells Roxane with one n.