Annie Hill wrote
Arne, you can do a not-too inelegant 'retrofit' by wrapping some closed-cell foam in Odyssey and then - I apologise for this - gluing these parcels to the batten pocket with contact cement.  A $10 camping mat should do the trick.

Sure, Annie,

but the seastate I sail in are generally not that bad. My suggestion was more meant for ocean travellers and Kiwis...

Arne

Bryan Tuffnell wrote:The effect of rake is perhaps more easily visualised by imagining a horizontal mast. In that case the sails would be kept from 'falling' past perpendicular to the mast by the sheets, and if the mast it allowed to sway, the weight of the sail against the sheets holds it steady. With a few degrees of forward rake the degree is different, but the principle holds.

There is one thing I have failed to do to my sails; padding the battens at the mast. I use to make separate fore batten-pockets from thick PVC at the mast. A simple improvement would be to make these oversize, to get room for wrapping the battens with some soft material. This would dampen some of the annoying noise when rolling about in an old chop in light winds.

Next time, perhaps...

Arne

Graeme Kenyon wrote:Both you and Annie have commented on the need to keep the rig asleep (as far as possible) down wind and your points are also being filed away for the future. Annie is right about the awkward swell we sometimes get here on the Northeast Coast and I think my boat might tend to be a teensy-weensy bit rolly-polly - not too bad I hope - how does a junk rig respond to a temporary fore-guy on the boom in these conditions? (I think Siblim with her shallow draft and "adjustable roll dampers" is going to be rather superior in this situation, one more tick for Siblim.)

It's not a great idea putting a guy on the boom.  They are not made for that sort of loading and besides, it's the yard that is the issue.  On pointy rig, it's the boom that crashes around, because it's the only (more or less) horizontal spar: on junk rig you've got half a dozen or more to keep asleep.  With a rake on the mast, the yard is well forward (at least, that's how my eyes see it) while the boom is in the same place. 

Annie’s point makes sense, since so much of the coastal sailing in NZ is actually offshore (open waters, at least). Still, there are other factors that make the matters worse, or easier:

Shrouds
Shrouds prevent us from squaring out the sail properly downwind, and a half-squared-out sail will flick back and forth whenever it can. Therefore, rigging the boat with an un-stayed mast is essential. No disagreement here, for sure!

Weight of yard and battens.
The heavier they are, the more likely it is that they will fly around in a chop as the wind drops. These days I try to find thin-walled aluminium tubes of sufficient section for my battens. I also try to make a fairly light yard from aluminium.  Carbon would have been even better, but I don’t have easy access to that. The ideal is a sail with no mass at all, as this would let any wind there is dominate.

Twist control.
One of the things that can make the rig more resistant or vulnerable to “chop-induced” gybing back and forth is how the twist is controlled. If the top is squared fully out, while the boom is only squared out to 60-70°, then the lower area will want to backwind and gybe as the boat rolls (this is demonstrated on most gaff rigs lacking a preventer on the boom). Doing away with any twist is quite essential to minimise trouble when running before. In addition, the sail must be squared fully out, or even a few degrees beyond square, if possible. I think the Johanna-sheeting is good at this, but it requires quite some drift. I cannot sheet the furled bundle to the CL with my Johanna-sheeting (p.5), but I don’t care. As long as I can sheet the 3- or 2-panel top in for close-hauled sailing, that is good enough for me. An alternative is separate upper-lower sheeting, which, btw is less complicated to deal with than it sounds.

Cheers, Arne