Brad

In Practical Junk Rig Hasler & McLeod recommend a maximum size for a single junk sail to be handled by a single person as 600-700 sq. ft. This is largely based on the weight of the sail, and PJR talks mainly about wooden yard, battens and boom. With aluminium, weight may be less, and therefore, presumably, maximum sail area can be greater.

Peter Bailey, when designing a rig for his Spray replica Bertie, wanted to maximise sail area and concentrate as much of it as he could into a single sail. His Hong Kong-style mainsail is 1,000 square feet, with wooden yard and battens. The rest of his required sail area (around 1,600 sq. ft. in total) was provided by two foresails and a sizeable mizzen, making Bertie a Junk Cutter Yawl (!?). Peter reckons the two headsails present more handling difficulties than the main.

Personally, I would not wish to handle a single sail much greater than 700 sq. ft. in area. The building of such a sail would also present difficulties.

Chris

Hi All,

I looked at previous topics but did not see this covered. I want to JR my 55 ft 64000 lb motor sailor BUT I need a single big sail of 1200 to 1400 sq ft. No room for a ketch rig ect. The mast location looks OK with a good bury and a 10% lead but before I get too far down the rabbit hole can a sail of this size 50x25 work for a short handed cursing boat ?

If so I will have lots of follow up questions on the rig and mast. By the way one of the JRA Colin King worked for the builder Fibersteel when the Wild Goose was completed in 74 one of 34 Valeo,s built by the company.

Thanks for any advice Brad