Anonymous wrote:
Howard wrote:
Why anybody sets to sea for extended voyaging with a modern Bermuda rig when a free standing cambered junk rig is available escapes me entirely, knowing that you will have to invest the cost of a new car in sails and rigging every 10 years or even less.
I think you need to be careful about making such sweeping statements, and I say this as someone who is a big fan of the junk rig, and have also crossed oceans with both junk and bermudan rig. Yes, my preference now is for a junk rig for reasons of simplicity, ease of handling, and use of low technology. But I have also done many thousands of miles of ocean cruising with a bermuadan cutter rig, and have delivered cross ocean numerous yachts with differing iterations of the bermadan rig, and I have found them to no less reliable, and generally no more difficult to handle than the equivalent sized junk rig if well set up with quick reefing. This is where the cutter rig is so good providing a range of sail area and combinations from 3 basic sails.. The problem with the modern bermudan rig is that too much complexity is creeping in, which means big money. But a bermudan rig boat is no more likely to need new sails than a junk rig boat. My last bermudan rig boat still had her original 30 year old sails which were in excellent condition because they were always covered when not in use.
I would have preferred to have a junk rig on my new catamaran, but for reasons of weight that is not possible. Instead I have designed something of a hybrid rig, revisiting the gaff main, and using low technology fittings, lashings, and fiber rigging. What hardware I do need such as boom gooseneck I am making myself using carbon fiber, which as a raw material in small quantities is not expensive. The headsail will be self tacking to make handling easier. It is all a bit of an experiment so it will be interesting to see how it works out. But I wanted to use lessons learned from my previous junk rig to come up with an efficient, relatively inexpensive, and low technology bermudan rig.
Of course the bermudan guys have just figured out that a way to make the rig more efficient is to get more sail up high, hence the proliferation of square top mainsails. Unfortunately to make this work a lot of expensive hardware is required. This is where the simplicity of the junk rig, and possibly variations of the gaff rig, for those who cannot, or choose not to go to the junk rig, can provide an alternative.
David:
Broad brush statements are as you point out not wise..... The vast majority of world voyaging boats are Bermuda rigged.
I'm not one of those people who have faith in lady luck. She often smiles on me, and usually comes through when I need her most.
I look at things from a different perspective than many people, and that is one of the reasons I don't live from crisis to crisis. The standing rigging on a Bermuda rig always looks like a veritable house of cards to me. I know all about metal fatigue, and intergranular corrosion and such having fixed various systems for myself and other people all my life. All those cables and hardware may inspire confidence in some people, but what I see is a system where failure of almost any one of dozens of seemingly insignificant parts can send the mast over the side. I'm also a pilot, and helicopters scare me for the same reason. Every component of the rotor system has a specified service life after which it MUST be replaced regardless of apparent condition. Sailboats don't fall out of the sky killing all on board if something fails, but it is enough of a concern that replacing standing rigging on a fairly regular basis, in some cases at a cost comparable to a new car is called for.
Clearly a well maintained Bermuda rig is safe and reliable. Most sailboats spend nearly all their time in a slip with the sails either covered or off stowed below extending life. I'm very aware of UV degradation of fabric...(aircraft again). The equation changes when a boat spends much of it's life actually voyaging, and even those spend far more time at anchor than sailing. The stresses on a sail that uses the outhaul and vang to pull tension on the sail to shape it, and is supported only at the luff and foot are considerable, and any tear is likely to wipe the entire sail out. The nature of sail design means that you are locked into a system where expensive fabrics are needed and skilled designers and seamsters to give it the shape and structure necessary. That means that when you blow out a sail in the Indian Ocean and limp into Reunion for example you have a crisis that involves trying to contact a suitable sail maker in Europe or the US, arrange payment of thousands of dollars, and go through the nightmare of importation paying agents on both ends as well. not to mention freight, and being stuck somewhere you may not want to be for months. Numerous pieces of necessary hardware from sail track and cars, to traveler, winches, furling gear, etc, also represent maintenance issues.
There is a saying we've all heard to the effect that sailing is about working on your boat in exotic places....
Presumably you made your own sail for the junk rig, and can do it again or direct a local seamstress in doing it for/with you from locally available materials. Likely you only lost one panel, so "limping in" meant tying two battens together, and if you tore one panel, your repair at sea is far more likely to hold over a long period due to lower stresses. Your mast is the single "failure point", not dozens of bits of hardware and cables. That is only one thing to worry about and inspect, and you quite likely built it yourself and can do it again from locally available lumber. Your complement of hardware and rigging is small enough that unlike a Bermuda rig, you can carry enough spares and repair materials to get you through.
Clearly I don't think like other people ;-) In cars I look at things like turbochargers, overhead and variable cam timing, traction control and antilock brakes ,electric windows and seats, self parking, lane following, and numerous other "features" as liabilities ... just things to maintain and to fail. I like simplicity and maintainability, weather we are talking about a boat or a car.
This photo says it all..... he was still sailing.