GAFF-JUNK SCHOONER?

  • 07 Jun 2012 17:43
    Reply # 952975 on 944229

    Thanks for the replies.  The great thing about the Website is that you can bounce off an idea and find that someone has tried it before (normally David - is there no end to what he has already done!!).

    Being an ex-windsurfer the mast-sleeve looks so right, at least on paper, but I have to agree with the consensus that sleeving the sail around the mast is a no-go.  As anything that takes way from a readily droppable sail, negates the best feature of a junk rig. 

    And therefore, a simple (un-sleeved) junk-gaff, is unlikely to gain any advantage over a simple junk sail.

    Of course, David is right, I should get off my butt and start trying out some ideas, and I have realized there is my daughter’s Topper hiding in the long grass at the end of the garden.  For some reason I never thought of that as a test bed.  So it is out with the strimmer, a few roof battens, bits of ply, that old polytarp, and Tadpole wing-sail mk1 here we come! (but do not hold your breath!!).

    (Not that I am on my butt that often, as they say: work is the bane of the sailing classes)

    Cheers

    Mark

  • 06 Jun 2012 21:07
    Reply # 950432 on 944229
    To which I'd add that in my (now) infrequent visits to the Freedom website the most common reason given for people switching from wrap-around cat rig to luff in a track was that when the sails got wet they stuck to the masts...
    Last modified: 06 Jun 2012 21:08 | Anonymous member
  • 06 Jun 2012 04:24
    Reply # 948394 on 944229

    Mark

    Have you looked at Wharram's 'wingsail' rig that they put on their range of designs?  It might be a starting point, being a modified Gaff.   You could probably find an old sail on ebay to muck about with.  It is interesting that the common complaint on the wharram forums, regarding this rig, is the problem of raising and reefing this 'sleeved' sail.  many people seem to find that the sleeve is not easy to use....  fine when the sail is fully raised, but a bit of a struggle to lower (easily) in a blow.    Of course the addition and the weight of battens might aid this.

    Peter

  • 05 Jun 2012 22:37
    Reply # 947361 on 944229
    Mark Thomasson wrote:

    Looking at the article on the schooner rigged Liberty in the current Newsletter it occured to me that the luff is very clsoe to the mast.

    So why not simplify the rig in a a gaff-junk?  This could possibly incorporate a sail sleeved around the mast for aerodynamic efficiency.

     

    Why not simplify the rig in a gaff junk? Quite simple, Mark - it doesn't simplify the rig. There are practical problems in getting the yard and battens to bear against the mast, that simply don't exist with a pure junk rig. 
    I first tried sleeved sails about 30 years ago (with a gaff and battens all behind the mast). So did Freedom Yachts. Nobody much is still doing so. Why? Drag on the mast when hoisting and lowering, and a great deal of crumpling and creasing to the sail in way of the mast.
    Mark, it is time you put some of your ideas into practice. Some of them are good and worth trying, some have been tried and found wanting, some wouldn't work - but you'd only find out by trying them. Why not borrow the JRA Laser, mouldering away for lack of interest, and start to make some rigs for it out of low-cost materials, to see for yourself what works and what doesn't? And then report back to us on what works and what doesn't?
  • 04 Jun 2012 17:39
    Message # 944229

    Looking at the article on the schooner rigged Liberty in the current Newsletter it occured to me that the luff is very clsoe to the mast.

    So why not simplify the rig in a a gaff-junk?  This could possibly incorporate a sail sleeved around the mast for aerodynamic efficiency.

     

       " ...there is nothing - absolutely nothing - half so much worth doing as simply messing about in junk-rigged boats" 
                                                               - the Chinese Water Rat

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