Enjoy your chance to sail on the J24 and remember this is designed to race. There are many other bermuda rigged boat that you can sail with less drama and work and there are many people who safely single hand trailer sailors. With a GOOD roller furller and a main reefing system you and your wife should be able enjoy relaxing time on the water. That doesn’t mean a junk rigged boat can’t be in your future.

Thanks for the supportive comments. I have been introduced to the J24 history for sure, thanks to her owner, and it is a nice boat and is amazing to feel with the tiller in hand. ;-)  He's a pretty quiet and thoughtful sailor, but he does like to "race" other boats when he's out and he takes a lot of pride in his boat's speed and abilities. :-) Though racing just isn't in my enjoyment of operating a sailboat, he is a good teacher, I feel and I've learned things every time I go out, so to have this opportunity we feel very fortunate. There is so much to learn, and for the price of snacks and the occasional tank of gas for him we're taking advantage of him and his boat; but likely, I want to pursue some purchased lessons I believe that are offered at Lake Tahoe as well, next year.

Anonymous wrote:

Steve and Sally, who live on the Isle of Wight, UK, bought a Freedom 21 this year, and having renovated it asked me to draw a junk rig sail to suit the existing mast. The sail is to be made by Segelmacherei Tuchwerkstatt ( see back page of the magazine), with cambered panels.

Basic drawing attached.

Thank you David, for this input.

Anonymous wrote:

My name is Leo and I'm VERY new to sailing, but my wife and I will be spending next year learning a lot on a coworker's J24 on Lake Tahoe, with an eye to shopping for our own boat next fall.

Reading PJR, surveying lightly the conversations with people here, I have to admit though, that I'm concerned that the costs and construction in converting an existing boat (at our age and income level)

I have no intentions of tackling a mast repositioning on an existing sailboat myself, which leaves me the impression this challenge would be impractical for our time and budget.

We're likely shopping around for trailer/sailers, in the 20' range as there are more than enough bodies of water around us to keep a pair of novice sailors busy on weekends, long or short, and our interest in boat ownership is merely floating around from A to B safely and boring as we can.  For now, certainly.

Leo. Welcome to sailing and the JRA.  While I am glad to tell anyone who is willing to listen the advantages of the junk rig I also see that converting a boat is not the easiest or least expensive way to get on the water. The freedom 21 is different from most conversions as it’s mast sits a good way aft of the bow and is already free standing. Also there is a shallow draft model that makes weekend trailer sailing possible. I think catboats generally have their mast too far in the bow to convert without moving the mast.  Even if you could balance the boat and rig, the sail and battens ahead of the mast would make it very difficult to anchor, moor or other activities from the bow. 

Enjoy your chance to sail on the J24 and remember this is designed to race. There are many other bermuda rigged boat that you can sail with less drama and work and there are many people who safely single hand trailer sailors. With a GOOD roller furller and a main reefing system you and your wife should be able enjoy relaxing time on the water. That doesn’t mean a junk rigged boat can’t be in your future.

As a very basic sailing question, that I'm likely answering as I ask it, is the performance of a Bermuda rig that much greater than a cat rig, that its performance is why the one dominates the other in sailboat designs; given that a cat rigged boat would have a better cabin layout, with the mast forward?

As a similar comparison, the difference in models, might be likened to the percentages of diamond framed bicycles seen, versus recumbent bicycle frames...if that makes any sense.  >shrug<

Super, thanks for that suggestion!  Having a slight knowledge of sailboat variations, this is just the sort of information I need to know and to build on!

I am aware of the cat rigs being more easily converted

to the junk sail plan and I'll have to start studying up on these boats and ones with a similar layout.  Here on the West Coast (basically), for whatever reasons, this design isn't as common as on the East Coast.