The late Robin Blain was a regular fixture at the Bealieu Boat Jumble, where he would demonstrate junk rigs with accurately constructed table-top models. Interested persons were invited to operate the control lines to help them understand how the rig works.

I expect it'll be some time before anyone visits a boat Jumble, but I wonder what happened to Robin's models. If they can be found, close-up photos or video shots would provide the greatest clarity for anyone who didn't have the good fortune to meet Robin or play with his models.

Hello everybody,

Given that I also love diagrams more than 3d virtual videos, I am convinced that a series of videos shot by a senior while lofting, cutting, sewing (including loops and hoops) and rigging a junk sail with cambered panels, could represent an excellent integration to a good text. In my opinion, this could become a valuable tool to encourage a beginner to take the first step and then accompany him on the journey.

"in medio stat virtus" said the ancients ....

Mauro

Jim, you are of course right that my post below was not too nice.
Still, since the junkrig is un-known to most sailmakers and other sailors in the neighbourhood, one simply needs to be a bit bull-headed just to decide for a JR. Videos can only partly help there. They would also be quite expensive to create, compared to written texts with diagrams.

Btw. what should the reason for making the 3-D presentation be if not to help people (design and) make their own sails? 

Arne

Anonymous wrote:

Frankly, Jim and Jassem,

I don’t think any interactive 3-D video will produce betters sails  -  or lower the threshold from dreams to a finished JR. The videos surely are fine for promoting the rig, but so are well-edited videos of real junks sailing around. I fear that these digital presentations will rather lock the wannabe junkies to the computer screen. The real job, to actually construct a junk sail, all by ourselves, may even look more daunting after watching those posh videos. To a first-timer, constructing one’s own sail may feel like eating an elephant in one sitting. We who have made a few sails know how to ‘eat  that elephant’: We eat it bit by bit.

Moreover, what one needs when (literally ) down on one’s knees to loft and cut out the bits of clot, is a 2-D sailplan with all the needed numbers on it (3-4-sheets to avoid too much clutter) . These numbers must be accurate and double-checked, or you may face real problems.

If you haven’t sewn anything before, I hereby give you a simpler task: Design and sew a few shopping bags, preferably from the same material as you are to make the sail from. Now, if that simple challenge is too much for you, I suggest you leave sailmaking to others. I am not even sure if the junkrig is for you, as the rigging, setting up and handling a JR call for some creative and independent mind-set. There is little help to get from the one in the neighbour berth (Bermuda rig, of course...)

I may sound a bit too frank here, but the reality will meet you at the lofting floor, no matter what I say (..sewing is the easy bit...).

Good luck!
Arne

I guess all I wanted to say was thank you, in perhaps a clumsy way...

I agree that videos, or the 3d model, don't do the job for of you, or will make me a better sewer. I am acutely aware that junk rigging is no picnic at Ikea (which is one of the many reasons why I love the rig).

For a sail-maker beginner like me, a moving image is a helpful tool, because it centralizes a broad range of information in one object.
It helps to contain the scattering of information (which comes with the territory of course, but is still very daunting). 

When one is in the process of making their own rig, it can give me a dynamic overview of the general mechanics involved in a specific part. Yes, it did not replace the knowledge that comes to me by doing it, and it does not replace reading the fundamentals.

Thank you again, 

Jassem

Anonymous wrote:

 The 3D model on the JRA is a walking miracle for me. It is the best introductory explanation for anyone who wants to have a general view of what exactly is a junk rig. Thank you for this. 

Thank you for this endorsement. Four years ago, in April, 2017, I attended the JRA's AGM in Whangarei, New Zealand. I persuaded the Committee to fund a 3D animation project which you see now. Your experience is what I hoped for. I think it's a good start and the method lends itself to future enlargement. The section with part labels is not finished. I guess the funding ran out. I vaguely remember reading that it would be completed with amateur input. I think it better to pay for it. I regret that I didn't log into last year's virtual meeting and express my views. This is where the JRA's recourses can be invested with a big and lasting impact.

Volunteers have a life. They need income. These things go to the back of the line and you wait and wait...

In the future iteration. I would like to see the following: I would like to see a layered illustration. Each layer shows a different system. You can see it all at once or one layer at a time. For example, the yard hauling parrel could be viewed by it self, curing upward like a serpent. At the same time, the mast could be included but a "ghost", barely visible but there. You can see through it to the YHP. You see the blocks attached to the battens and the battens are there as ghosts too. And so on. The illustration we have depicts a simple Hasler/McLeod rig.

That is wise. In future, we could show Arne's Johanna and her children's rigs to illustrate some recent developments. Or any other rig of note. Illustrations can show so much more, and clearly what photographs don't. Photos show too much and too little. One of my favorite books is Bruce Bingham's "The Sailor's Sketchbook". He can tell a story with one illustration.

Thanks for your endorsement.