Anonymous wrote:
My experience has been mainly with gunter rigs and gaff rigs but I also used to sail on a Cornish dipping lugger. I can't recall the terminology, but the lugger has a "running backstay" which isn't really a backstay, it's the aft shroud on each side, which is loosened or tightened on each tack so only the windward shroud is under tension and the leeward shroud is loose so it allows the sail to set more perpendicularly to the mast on a run or very broad reach (if there's one stay that is transfered across it's called a burton). It seems to me that in converting a gaff rig to have a junk main it might be useful to arrange the shrouds like this (if there are two shrouds on each side, then just the aft one of each pair. The only other modification might be to have plenty of baggywrinkle on the aft shrouds to stop the junk sail chaffing.
I was trying to find some info on this and came across this lovely article, total heresy to junkies but anyway... http://www.stivesjumbo.com/Classic%20Sailor%20PDF.pdf
These, I believe, are the rig Wharram got his inspiration for the wing sail he developed. If you see the other thread I started it’s about considering a wing sail or a junk.
interesting idea regarding the stays you mention. But it does add a step in sailing, something I wish to reduce as I’m sailing from a wheelhouse in my case.