Graham: Yes, seaworthiness was the main reason behind my choice, that and the fact that out of similar long keeled boats of similar age, the Halcyon doesn't seem to have any cult following, so prices are more reasonable! That said, when I am eventually ready to buy, I'll probably keep an open mind and consider Twisters, Victoria 26, Nicholson 27, Vancouver 27/28...

Of course, I'm still waiting for lockdown to lift so I can actually get some experience sailing! Fingers crossed I don't find the rolling too uncomfortable and end up running to the shelter of a plastic fantastic :P

Arne: Thank you for your advice. I finally have my copy of PJR now, so I'm going to do another sketch with the slingpoint and halyard angle adjustments, and I'll post it up here when I'm done. I'm still doing a lot of looking up terms in the glossary/on google as I try to understand, but fingers crossed I'm getting there!

Hi Asiyla.
It appears that I have written way too little about the halyard, both with respect to the position of its slingpoint on the yard, and with respect to how much it can or should be angled away from the mast.

When I started making junkrigs, I followed the guidelines of Practical Junk Rig, PJR, and thus put the slingpoint at the middle of the yard.
On my later rigs of the Johanna style with 70° yard, I have found it better to move the slingpont to 55% aft of the throat end. Nowadays I also try to avoid that the halyard angles more than 30° away from the mast. I try to keep the sail’s balance between 12 and 17% balance with respect to the mast.

On your sketch, the sail has been fitted with very little balance, and with much smaller lead than the Bermuda rig. I the boat were mine I would find the 55% point of the yard and then draw a 60° halyard line which will define the mast top where it crosses the mast line. This setup would give much room for shifting the sail further forward on the mast, and thus increase the lead  -  something I think would be good on this boat. That’s the fine thing with a junk sail: One may adjust the sail's position quite a bit until steering feels good.

I guess I have to update Chapter 3 and 4 of TCPJR, and maybe even the Junk Rig for Beginners  -  or I may get away with writing an introduction to the PDF file with Master Sails.

Arne