Annie, don’t worry,
our disagreement is moderate, indeed. Fanshi ’s mast appears have only 2° forward rake, which moves the mast top about 25cm forward. If that helps to stabilize the sail, then fine, no problem.

I guess the need for this cure varies with the boat type and the weight of the mast. My Johanna, with her moderate beam and round bottom, plus a heavy wooden mast, didn’t react much to power boat or ferry wakes; she just bobbed up and down. My Ingeborg has a much lighter mast, but with only 2.2m beam, and with 58% ballast she too doesn’t take much notice of wakes. Most lightweight and wide-beam boats will probably be more lively  -  as my Frøken Sørensen surely was. This summer she ended bottom-up...

Arne

Funny that, Paul.
I surely see the point in raking the foremast of a JR schooner forward.  I guess this is partly to move the sail as far forward as possible, and partly to avoid that the sail gybes back and forth in the turbulence of the main. However, for the main mast and for a sloop mast, I have seen very little of this. Below is a 14.5m sea-going junk, showing what I mean.

Now I have looked over photos of your La Chica. I notice that the foremast has a moderate forward rake while the mainmast appears to stand pretty upright.
What problems did that mainsail give you, which you did not have with the foresail?
I remember Annie Hill once told that in her area, one could have an annoying old swell from the sea, combined with light winds, and that was her main argument for raking the mast forward. I can see that point. I just wonder why the Chinese didn’t think that way.

Sheet gearing:
I notice that many use as much as 5- and 6-part sheets, even on small boats.  This must cause a lot of friction and make sails reluctant to swing out in light winds. I tried 5-part sheet on Johanna, the first couple of weeks, but soon changed to 3-part. With this setup, and with an upright mast, the sails swing out in so light winds that the panels have not inflated properly yet. Pretty flat waters, though, mostly...

Arne

The Tube Tabernacle, or...
...how to make a mast taller without lengthening it.

I read somewhere below that the original mast for that unstayed gaffrig was a little short for a JR. Actually, I have recently been pondering on how to make a mast ‘one panel taller’ without making a taller mast. The answer is to install a tube tabernacle, and then plonk the mast into that, but with the mast step now raised as much as needed. If one does the sums right, this will produce a taller mast without having to raise the boom, unlike with ordinary tabernacles.

This solution has some advantages, and only one drawback:

• ·         The T-tabernacle can be firmly installed ‘forever’ in the boat without problems with leaks or movement.
• ·         The mast (shimmed out to make a tight fit) just slides down the tube until it is stopped by a stout bolt or whatever, well above the original mast step.
• ·         As said, the boom of the sail does not need to be raised to clear a tall tabernacle.
• ·         Any wires from the masthead can just drop out of the bottom end of the mast, and then be fished out through an oval slot near the bottom of the t-tabernacle.

The downside is of course that the mast needs a crane or derrick when installing it, so is not for everyone.

On the diagram below, I have tested the idea on that Kelt 8.50. Here I imagine that the owner one day comes to his senses and decides to add a seventh panel on his sail. That tube tabernacle lets him raise the mast enough for that panel without ending up with too little bury of the mast in the t-tabernacle.

Just an idea.

Arne

Hi Arne, I wasn’t advocating forward rake (though I have come to rather like the look of it - and some people do say it has advantages. I have not had the experience of it.)

I was just looking for a way to get a junk sail to look about in the right position in relation to the underwater profile, without having to shift the position of the mast partners.

Just eyeballing it, it actually looked to me as though vertical mast and a Johanna rig with the minimum of balance would be close to about right on that boat with that mast position. But not sure, and I was interested in what you would think about that. I don’t think a SJR or any high balance single mast rig would work on that boat, unless the mast were shifted aft a bit.

Correct me if I am wrong. The purpose of the conversation, for me, was hopefully to learn something.

Also, I didn’t read the specs very carefully – at 5.7 tonne it’s a bit more substantial than just a little sharpie.

I think I see what you mean about "halyard angle", though I would have thought the ability to rake the mast forward a little, if that is necessary to get the sail in the right place, would have been an advantage of the Johanna rig. I don't know if it would be the right thing to do in this case, though.

PS on second look,  "halyard angle" seems not to depend simply on mast rake. Within limits, it looks to me as if you could rake the mast forward a little, and increase the balance a little - and thereby move the centre of the sail forward quite a lot -  without actually changing the angle of the halyard to the vertical. To my uneducated way of thinking. Within limits. If you wanted to.

Wow! JRA is such a wonderful resource of great minds. Thank you all.