Good summary. Concerning the (perhaps somewhat surprising) negliable performance loss on the ”bad tack”, junk rig enthusiast Arne Kverneland made an interesting speculation on the phenomena - when the sail is in the ”bad tack” that also means that the mast will be somewhat embedded in the camber of the sail and therefore subject to less wind drag and turbulence and that this makes up for the impaired shape of the sail. I think that is a plausible theory. Anyway - I love the work if the JRA! I’ve learned so much from from both the website as well as the youtube channel.
Yes that hypothesis sounds possible, and a soft wing sail that surrounds and streamlines the mast has only "good" tacks. What's lacking from other Western soft wingsails is the reefing and control of the junk sheeting. Combining both would seem to give the best of both worlds.
Thanks for a very clear series. This video explained sailing a junk rig very well. It seems very benign, forgiving and easy to sail compared to a Bermudan rig. The junk rig has many advantages and ought to be more popular. Thanks for sharing knowledge about it.
Weather helm problem? Lengthen the batten, yard and boom parrels till the sail can be hauled athwartships till near half the sail is on iether side of the mast when downwind sailing. Result... No weather helm.
Good point, thank you, if the batten parrels are set to keep the sail back, then adjustments in them (maybe in conjunction with shifting the halyard attachment point) will be required to allow the boom forward - but half the sail either side?
As an old fart who is not too athletic, the easy reefing and tacking of the JR appeals to me. I've watched a lot of YT videos of young mono- and multi-hull sailors with bermudan rigs, and the amount of effort and risk needed to wrestle with sails on the deck in often lousy weather is sometimes terrifying. I want a lazy man's rig.
I understand. I'm finally comprehending and retaining nearly all of the Subject matter. At the same time, this Subject provides a better understanding of the Bermuda system. I no longer have a misconception of which is to do.
A question. I'm planning on adding sails to my dinghy and I want to keep it super light weight. I really like the junk sails, but I wonder if those battens or what you call them... Do they need to be heavy? I would like to use carbon fiber rods, but from what I can see you use the weight for the reefing. I can't find videos with smaller boats and junk rig, is there anyone using like light weight aluminium or carbon fiber rods that you know about? The carbon fiber would look amazing I think, but if it doesn't fulfill it's function it's pretty pointless I guess.
You are correct - near instant reefing requires some weight in the yard (especially) and battens. And you also want them to be relatively stiff. Certainly not very bendy. Have a look at these channels ruclips.net/video/Cwk23aJMA_o/видео.htmlfeature=shared ruclips.net/video/Q1lgz3mTeE4/видео.htmlfeature=shared and consider joining the JRA for less than €10 to get access to resources and people who can help.
Chafe is not a particular problem because loads are distributed around the rig. But of course it’s important to check the lines periodically. The most important is the halyard because if it fails the sail won’t work- instead it will fall into the lazy jacks and the sheets will go loose so you’ll have to pull them in. Usually nothing calamitous and a lot less dangerous than a failed stay or shroud. But of course masthead attachments, blocks and shackles should be visually inspected from time to time, in the same way as any sailboat. So no special problems but routine maintenance should not be ignored.
@@junkrigassociation Thanks, I'll have a read of that article. Also wonding how well junk rigs cope with heavy weather. Can you really heave-to properly without a jib? A self-tacking jib on a bow sprit like this: asa.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/JunkRigLakeGeorge-1024x634.jpg would seem like a good solution to me. ...And it looks nice! ;-)
@@timhoward7556 Another thing, with the advent of the Jordan Series Drogue the junk rig becomes even more attractive, when it becomes to much to sail substitute heaving too with deployment of the Jordan series drogue, which the more I read about becomes ever more evident as the ultimate storm survival tactic when offshore sailing. Just keep in mind that you can still be dragged 60 miles in a day and storms can last multiple days.
I'm a long distance sailor. Flat Junk sails are a no-brainer over "cambered" Junk sails. The baggy Junk sail is one of Stavanger Arne's incessant need to fix things that aren't broken. By the way, have those claims of better windward performance of baggy sails never been subjected to scientific testing, have they? (identical boats, one flat one baggy, sailing together to observe difference?) I don't think so. But my gut sense is that a flat sail can pull tighter in a stiff breeze. Can't imagine any appreciable difference in any other point of sail. Also, in an extended dead calm, baggy sails would have to be furled and bound tightly to gallows to prevent you from going insane from the flogging. Hell. Fully hoisted flat sails sheeted hard amidship in dead calm acts as giant dampener to rolling in the swells. Heaven. If you're thinking about sailing offshore, stick with flat Junk sails, and thank me later. Never noticed a difference between tacks myself either. If you want to win local races buy or build yourself a deep keeled racer. If you want to sail efficiently and safely anywhere in the world, you can't go wrong with a good unstayed mast and (flat) Junk sails.
Hi, remembering that sometimes people who know each other might poke gentle fun at each other online, we are assuming the “Stavanger…” sentence above is such a case. Otherwise it might seem a bit mean, and we want this channel to be all about fellowship not discord. The debate between flat and cambered panels is an old one and members of the JRA and others can get much more information at www.junkrigassociation.org
Another great video, thanks for sharing all this information! Anyone knows for an engineer or company that does the conversion from Bermuda to junk rigging?
Sounds like a junk rig is better in almost every way. Strange how these triangle pyramid sailboats became so popular at what is now known as the end of the golden age of sailing. Pyramid sails tear often, beat themselves to death on rigging, and create dangerous situations, all for what is now being proven as marginal gains in the best conditions.
Thanks for taking the time to put the presentation together. It’s a very practical rig & easy shorthanded.
Covers the main points very well.
Thanks to the team.
Very interesting tuition on this lovely simple rig , thank you for time and for sharing your knowledge .
Hopefully we’ll get ours out on the water this summer. Building a new rudder now.
Thank you for providing this! Thank you 🙏
Glad you liked it
Good summary.
Concerning the (perhaps somewhat surprising) negliable performance loss on the ”bad tack”, junk rig enthusiast Arne Kverneland made an interesting speculation on the phenomena - when the sail is in the ”bad tack” that also means that the mast will be somewhat embedded in the camber of the sail and therefore subject to less wind drag and turbulence and that this makes up for the impaired shape of the sail.
I think that is a plausible theory.
Anyway - I love the work if the JRA! I’ve learned so much from from both the website as well as the youtube channel.
Yes that hypothesis sounds possible, and a soft wing sail that surrounds and streamlines the mast has only "good" tacks. What's lacking from other Western soft wingsails is the reefing and control of the junk sheeting. Combining both would seem to give the best of both worlds.
Thanks for a very clear series. This video explained sailing a junk rig very well. It seems very benign, forgiving and easy to sail compared to a Bermudan rig.
The junk rig has many advantages and ought to be more popular. Thanks for sharing knowledge about it.
Thank you.
Weather helm problem? Lengthen the batten, yard and boom parrels till the sail can be hauled athwartships till near half the sail is on iether side of the mast when downwind sailing. Result... No weather helm.
Good point, thank you, if the batten parrels are set to keep the sail back, then adjustments in them (maybe in conjunction with shifting the halyard attachment point) will be required to allow the boom forward - but half the sail either side?
As an old fart who is not too athletic, the easy reefing and tacking of the JR appeals to me. I've watched a lot of YT videos of young mono- and multi-hull sailors with bermudan rigs, and the amount of effort and risk needed to wrestle with sails on the deck in often lousy weather is sometimes terrifying. I want a lazy man's rig.
Good video, thanks!
I understand. I'm finally comprehending and retaining nearly all of the Subject matter. At the same time, this Subject provides a better understanding of the Bermuda system. I no longer have a misconception of which is to do.
A question. I'm planning on adding sails to my dinghy and I want to keep it super light weight. I really like the junk sails, but I wonder if those battens or what you call them... Do they need to be heavy? I would like to use carbon fiber rods, but from what I can see you use the weight for the reefing. I can't find videos with smaller boats and junk rig, is there anyone using like light weight aluminium or carbon fiber rods that you know about? The carbon fiber would look amazing I think, but if it doesn't fulfill it's function it's pretty pointless I guess.
You are correct - near instant reefing requires some weight in the yard (especially) and battens. And you also want them to be relatively stiff. Certainly not very bendy. Have a look at these channels ruclips.net/video/Cwk23aJMA_o/видео.htmlfeature=shared ruclips.net/video/Q1lgz3mTeE4/видео.htmlfeature=shared and consider joining the JRA for less than €10 to get access to resources and people who can help.
How's the chafe with all those lines? And how do you do a rig inspection?
Chafe is not a particular problem because loads are distributed around the rig. But of course it’s important to check the lines periodically. The most important is the halyard because if it fails the sail won’t work- instead it will fall into the lazy jacks and the sheets will go loose so you’ll have to pull them in. Usually nothing calamitous and a lot less dangerous than a failed stay or shroud. But of course masthead attachments, blocks and shackles should be visually inspected from time to time, in the same way as any sailboat. So no special problems but routine maintenance should not be ignored.
Is there any major advantage to adding a jib/foresail to a junk rig? ...other than it looking more attractive! ;-)
@@junkrigassociation Thanks, I'll have a read of that article.
Also wonding how well junk rigs cope with heavy weather. Can you really heave-to properly without a jib?
A self-tacking jib on a bow sprit like this: asa.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/JunkRigLakeGeorge-1024x634.jpg would seem like a good solution to me. ...And it looks nice! ;-)
@@junkrigassociation I might just do that.:-)
@@timhoward7556 The junk rig should be easier and safer to reef in heavy weather.
@@timhoward7556 Another thing, with the advent of the Jordan Series Drogue the junk rig becomes even more attractive, when it becomes to much to sail substitute heaving too with deployment of the Jordan series drogue, which the more I read about becomes ever more evident as the ultimate storm survival tactic when offshore sailing.
Just keep in mind that you can still be dragged 60 miles in a day and storms can last multiple days.
👍👍👍!!!
I'm a long distance sailor. Flat Junk sails are a no-brainer over "cambered" Junk sails. The baggy Junk sail is one of Stavanger Arne's incessant need to fix things that aren't broken.
By the way, have those claims of better windward performance of baggy sails never been subjected to scientific testing, have they? (identical boats, one flat one baggy, sailing together to observe difference?) I don't think so.
But my gut sense is that a flat sail can pull tighter in a stiff breeze. Can't imagine any appreciable difference in any other point of sail.
Also, in an extended dead calm, baggy sails would have to be furled and bound tightly to gallows to prevent you from going insane from the flogging. Hell. Fully hoisted flat sails sheeted hard amidship in dead calm acts as giant dampener to rolling in the swells. Heaven.
If you're thinking about sailing offshore, stick with flat Junk sails, and thank me later.
Never noticed a difference between tacks myself either.
If you want to win local races buy or build yourself a deep keeled racer. If you want to sail efficiently and safely anywhere in the world, you can't go wrong with a good unstayed mast and (flat) Junk sails.
Hi, remembering that sometimes people who know each other might poke gentle fun at each other online, we are assuming the “Stavanger…” sentence above is such a case. Otherwise it might seem a bit mean, and we want this channel to be all about fellowship not discord. The debate between flat and cambered panels is an old one and members of the JRA and others can get much more information at www.junkrigassociation.org
The sound editor is a villan
Another great video, thanks for sharing all this information!
Anyone knows for an engineer or company that does the conversion from Bermuda to junk rigging?
Just wondering there is still healing over in a junk rig but you no longer need a weighted keel or dagger board?
@@junkrigassociation Multihulls..... A junk rig would seem like a great application on a shorthanded cruising catamaran or trimaran.
Sounds like a junk rig is better in almost every way. Strange how these triangle pyramid sailboats became so popular at what is now known as the end of the golden age of sailing. Pyramid sails tear often, beat themselves to death on rigging, and create dangerous situations, all for what is now being proven as marginal gains in the best conditions.