I have been going to the Scottish meets for years, in fact David said I was not to come to another until I had my own junk! Well having just retired and seeing a Coramandel at Dunoon, I jumped at the chance, so have finally and properly joined the Clan. With 10 days of sailing, from flat calm to short periods of D7, here are my reflections.

As an (ex?) windsurfer the junk rig seem so right and natural, what a great rig. So handy, especially at such a small size it is up in jiffy and down in a flash. Close manoeuvring is easy as it can be let out to lurk a while, and a quick tug on the boom sheet gets you going.

Being a basic flat rig it does need some wind especially close hauled. There is a narrow sweet angle, though this may help in its ability to truck along up wind with the helm fixed. (Not so off wind). The boat does need more umph in lower winds, more sail area and some shape. I did a quick and dirty experiment with a water sail rigged below the boom, made of an old polytarp which seemed to add on about half a knot.

Getting a good looking sail when deep reefed was a problem, there was a huge amount a twist. That said, with the yard well past 90deg you can sail by the lee at quite an angle. I did rig up downhauls to battens 2 & 3 (from top), and to the boom. The upper ones are a slight hassle as you can forget to release them, though to the boom seems essential and creates no issues. This all helped, as did a light line to the top batten, it did catch tacking, but was easily flicked over. With a bit more time I will try other sheeting options.

Letting the sail out to 90 Deg did work well for lying a-hull, though she did roll somewhat. Getty moving again took a little persuasion if going back up wind.