Anonymous wrote:
H.W.
sometimes the second-best will have to do. Randy already had a stayed mast, and the step from there to having a junk mainsail is quite short. Knowing from my own experience that making and rigging the mast takes a lot more time (and cost) than making the sail, I can well understand why Randy wants to cut corners.
It is a bit too easy to sit hundreds of miles from the sea, with zero JR experience, and instruct someone that this JR is good and the other is not. The bigger the sail gets, the more important becomes easy reefing.
Arne
Arne:
I don't consider expressing my thoughts on this amounts to "instructing"..... I leave that entirely up to you. A large part of my business involves designing and building things for agricultural customers in my area, which happens as you point out, to be hundreds of miles from the ocean. The US is a huge country.... around 5000 km coast to coast, and I made the choice to live in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains many years ago for many reasons that are not relevant here. As a result, I do not get as much sailing in as I'd like, as I get to the coast only a few times a year, when visiting family, though I have friends who sail the inland lakes & reservoirs closer at hand, and I join them when the opportunity arises. Mostly I live on dreams and ideas between times. The sea has always drawn me, but I find the crowding and abominable weather of the PNW intolerable..........but it's -18C here as I write, but dead calm, sunny, and the mountains jump out and touch you it's so clear at this elevation (1525M) this time of year....... only the sound of the birds punctuates the silence. I've always seen the face of God most clearly in the mountains and the sea, with only the sounds of nature.
As one who designs and builds things for others constantly, the ability to see the problems and issues by working through the operation of something in my head before it is built is critical. I build things in my head, and make small changes dozens or even hundreds of times before I cut iron, or assemble electrical, mechanical, or hydraulic control systems. I have to be able to see how different systems interact, and how the operator interacts with them in doing a job. What can go wrong, and how to prevent it. My reputation as a problem solver, and someone who can design a simple reliable, and efficient system, or a structural repair that lasts and eliminates the original cause rather than just being a "patch", or quickly go right to the heart of a problem on a system I am entirely unfamiliar with, depends on this. I've been doing this for nearly 40 years.
In my admittedly limited sailing experience, much of which dates back to the 60's and 70's I gained enough experience dealing with the limitations and work arounds necessary in sailing Bermuda rigged boats with stays and shrouds, and the incredible complexity of such systems with their countless components, the failure of any of which creates an instant crisis, that the free standing mast is a huge part of the appeal of the junk rig for me. It is also one of the big structural problems, both from the standpoint of distributing the loads properly, and of building enough strength in without excessive weight and/or cost, and it creates practical limitations as far as aspect ratio.
Take away the free standing mast, and what you would seem to have left is a sail that is easy to reef, and lightly loaded due to the battens, and a sail you can build yourself, and that does not require winches, vang, traveler, or a track and cars on the mast. You may or may not need head sail(s). You will still need running backstays for tacking, and a preventer(s) to protect your stays, shrouds, and boom. And of course you have the issue of spreaders and diamond stays, and such, that barring some slight of hand that escapes me, would make it impossible to span the mast with battens and use parrels to attach them, so that the only attachment point possible for stays and shrouds must be above the yard. This adds up to a heavier mast, as it must be loaded in column with nothing to hold it straight except it's own internal strength. It is held upright by the shrouds and stays, which must transmit considerable compression loads to it due to the relative beam to mast height. It is a structural equation that doesn't look good to my eye... but what do I know??
If things go according to my current plan, I will be able to claim some minimal experience in building and sailing a junk rig by the end of next summer....... perhaps not on the ocean yet.......but it's a start. One of those huge reservoirs on the upper Missouri River, or Flathead Lake, perhaps even Puget Sound and the San Juans if I get the chance. it's not much, but it's a start.
By the way...... I don't as you earlier suggested live on a sheep ranch, but I would not be ashamed to say that I did. I love working with livestock when I have the opportunity, and am skilled at it, and nothing gives me more pleasure than bringing new life into the world. I treasure those opportunities when I can step away from working on machines, electricity, and hydraulics, and deliver a newborn lamb or calf of foal into the world. I do many and diverse things every year. Breathing new life into a diesel engine built from diverse pieces...... as I recently did, is exciting, but does not compare to delivering new life into the world......... I find no shame in such ordinary things.... only joy!
I understand that you sometimes find my comments annoying. They are not intended to be. I have great respect for your knowledge and experience, and your willingness to share that with anybody who is willing to listen and learn. Your ideas, innovations, and experience have taken the junk rig to the next level, and are an inspiration to many of us.
H.W.