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Voyager explains junk rig choice

My decision to buy a Chinese junk-rigged schooner was shaped by several factors. Foremost was the certainty that I would be voyaging and not racing. The second important consideration was the rig’s simplicity. Made up mostly of lines and knots, this feature guaranteed less maintenance time and far less maintenance and replacement costs. There would be no expensive stainless fittings, winches, or high-tech sail materials. The third consideration was ease of handling. I knew that I would probably sail by myself or with inexperienced crews. Therefore, I wanted a boat I could handle safely and comfortably from the cockpit with a minimum of sail handling on the foredeck. Last, I was won over by the design and voyaging exploits of several well-known sailors who experimented with modern interpretations of this almost 2,000-year-old rig.

Back in the 1970s, Thomas Colvin designed and built several junk-rigged boats in Chesapeake Bay. One of his most popular designs, an aluminum schooner called Gazelle, can still be found occasionally in classified sailing magazine advertisements. He extolled the unique charm of the Chinese junk rig in a book called Cruising as a Way of Life.

Englishmen Blondie Hassler and Michael Richey made history by sailing the junk-rigged folkboat, Jester, in 13 successive Atlantic singlehanded races. It was the first singlehanded Atlantic race in 1960 that pitted Chichester against Hassler and his junk-rigged sloop. Chi-chester’s Gypsy Moth won that race, but Jester, captained by Michael Richey, subsequently established a record for the most race attempts. The fact that the boat and rig held up in this most inhospitable North Atlantic Ocean race is a testament to the boat and sail designs. In 1988 Hassler teamed up with Jock McLeod to write a definitive book on the junk-rig called Practical Junk Rig.

A dedicated group of British sailors has adapted this ancient sail plan for modern Western craft. They also formed the Junk Rig Association to further the study and exchange of ideas toward improving the rig. One of my all-time favorite sailor-authors is Bernard Moitessier. This Frenchman was born in Vietnam and acquired much of his early sailing experience in traditional junks. Although he changed to a more modern Bermuda-rigged boat for his many sailing exploits, he wrote nostalgically about those early sailing days in junks.

Almost everyone’s first sailing hero is Joshua Slocum. His greatest exploit is being the first singlehander to make it around the world in 1895 and write about it in a book called Sailing Alone around the World. He accomplished this awesome feat in a boat called Spray, a traditional gaff-rigged schooner. However, later in life he built the junk-rigged Liberdade for a trip from South America back to the U.S. This adventure is described in his book The Voyage of the Liberdade. The writings of these famous sailors made a deep impression on my choice of boat. Admittedly, I was also drawn to the uniqueness of the sail design. I wanted to be different and not have a boat that looked like every other boat in the harbor. I finally settled on a 32-foot Sunbird schooner made in England. It has a traditional Western, fiberglass hull and a pair of tan-bark, Chinese junk sails.

Almost everyone who stops to stare at my rig admires the unusual design but quickly turns the discussion to her poor light-air windward performance. I don’t disagree with this assessment, although I get a little frustrated and defensive having to explain that there is much more to voyaging than going to windward. I feel that the positive qualities of the rig far outweigh this concern.

Over years of coastal cruising I have learned to live with the fact that anywhere from 20% to 40% of passage time is spent under engine power or motorsailing. On my two transatlantic crossings, the engine was used more sparingly, and the sailing was slow but kindly. Even after an unfortunate dismasting of the foresail in mid-ocean, 1,500 miles from the Canaries, the remaining sail provided a safe, albeit slower, passage to the Bahamas.

In his wonderfully illustrated book, Ships of China, Valentin Sokoloff writes, "A hand-crafted sailing ship is a living thing with its own character and charm. A Chinese junk is even more so, and no wonder, as it was invented by an offspring of a nymph and a rainbow. His name was Fu Hsi, the first great ruler, who, they say, was born in 2852 B.C. Then Lu Pan, founder of the art of carpentry, greatly improved the original design. Further generations of Chinese shipwrights gave junks their final seaworthy and practical shape."

The evolution of sailboat design in the West has taken place over a much shorter period of time and a much different tack than in China. Today the epitome of Western boat design is represented by America’s Cup contenders and similar high-tech racing boats. Variations of the Bermuda rig (also known as Marconi rig, for the inventor’s tall radio transmitting tower) is seen on virtually every racing and voyaging boat to come off the showroom floor. For the most part, the emphasis in these designs is speed and, particularly, performance to windward. But there are obviously other aspects of sailing, especially voyaging; that is where the Chinese rig comes into its own.

The distinct advantage of the Chinese balanced-lug rig is in shorthanded, comfortable voyaging. Modern junk rigs have married the ancient designs with new materials, replacing bamboo and grass mats with fiberglass and Dacron. The resulting modern rig can be easily handled with less strength and endurance and without leaving the safety of the cockpit. Sailing with this rig can be relaxed, enjoyable, and safe without the high working loads of more popular triangular sails with their taut sheets and strenuous winching. The junk rig is easily reefed in strong winds and easily balanced for self-steering vanes and for lower loads on the tiller or wheel.

At first sight the rig’s unusual appearance is confusing to Western eyes. However, it is extraordinarily simple, clever, and easy to handle. The balanced-lug sails have full-length fiberglass battens that are laced across the width of the sail from luff to leech, as shown in the accompanying illustration. Each of the battens divides the sail into separate panels. The top batten is the yard, a heavier batten than the others because it carries the full weight of the sail. The bottom batten is the boom. It carries very little load and, therefore, needs to be no larger than the other battens.

The head of the sail is laced to the yard, which is hauled up by the halyard. The halyard is a multi-part block system to reduce the effort of hauling the sail. No winches are needed with this system, and the halyard can be hauled from the cockpit. The sail is held against the mast by a series of batten parrels. The sail always lies on one side of the mast and extends a short distance forward of the mast. This is what makes it a balanced lug rig, similar to a balanced rudder with a small area in front of the rudder stock. On one tack the sail lies directly on the mast. On the other tack it is constrained by the batten parrels. Multiple topping lifts, or lazy jacks, are tied off at the boom and create a cradle for the sail when reefed or completely lowered.

Two additional parrel lines are led back to the cockpit to control the fore and aft position of the sail. The yard parrel is used to hold the yard snugly to the mast. This is most important when the sail is reefed and would have a tendency to swing aft of the mast. The yard parrel brings the sail forward. Similarly, the luff parrel is used to prevent the sail from going too far forward and maintains moderate tension on the luff of the sail. Between these two parrel lines, the sail is kept in correct position, especially when reefed.

Simply lowering the halyard any distance reefs the sail. The more the halyard is lowered, the more panels are reefed. It acts like venetian blinds that are easily raised or lowered. As the panels are reefed, they and their battens lie in the cradle formed by the lazy jack system. The weight of the lowered battens prevents the sails from billowing out between the lazy jacks. The sails are automatically held in check no matter how many battens are lowered. This makes it unnecessary to tie reefing points or bundle the sail with sail ties.

As soon as the halyard is slackened, the sheets become loose, and the sail begins to spill wind. However, unlike other sails, it will not flog and damage itself if the sheet is loosened. The full-length battens make the rig much quieter without the loud banging associated with flogging sails. In light, downwind sailing, the battens also prevent the sails from collapsing periodically, thereby reducing sail wear and noise. A single sheet system controls the boom and all the other battens through a series of spans (sheetlets). This provides control over the entire leech of the sail, unlike a Bermuda rig where sheet control is only over the boom or clew of the sail. Therefore, the load on the tail end of the multi-part sheet is light and easily handled without a winch. The portion of the balanced-lug sail forward of the mast performs an important function, contributing to the safety and comfort of the crew. When wind and boat direction conspire to create an accidental gybe, the small portion of sail before the mast counters the wind’s effect on the remaining sail area and dampens the motion of the sail. This slows the otherwise violent tendency of the sail to flip to the other side of the boat. Both intentional and accidental gybing become much less hair-raising. The free-standing masts of a junk-rigged boat are typically designed to be somewhat flexible. They bend when winds get too strong, and spill the wind in the process. This bending reduces the heeling of the boat and acts as an automatic shock absorber in sudden gusts that would otherwise severely heel a conventional stayed-mast boat.

The Chinese junk-rigged boat is not for everyone. For most people, the Bermuda rig, with its conventional triangular sails, is more popular, either for the look or the windward performance. However, for those seeking a more effortless sailing experience with a unique traditional rig, the junk sail plan is an interesting alternative. n

Michael L. Frankel is a freelance writer who lives in Orange Park, Fla., when he isn’t voyaging aboard his 32-foot Chinese junk-rigged Sunbird, Sabra.

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What’s in A Rig? The Junk Rig

By: Pat Reynolds Sailboat Rigs , Sailboats

What’s in a Rig Series #3

There’s probably no rig more fascinating than the junk rig. Long before Columbus’ time, early as the 10 th century, the Chinese were making their way through the oceans with a rig that has amazingly stood the test of the time. There are many who feel that this very old but very innovative sail plan is superior to the more popular and ubiquitous sloop rig and others.

The junk is predicated upon sails that are fully battened, a characteristic associated with more modern racing vessels and they typically lack any standing rigging (stays and shrouds). They are a completely different looking sail plan and in practice it’s clear the early Chinese engineers and designers were way ahead of their time. A thousand years later, there are  advocates ready to point out the many areas where the junks reign supreme.

Due to the full batten set-up, the sails maintain an efficient consistent shape and are fast, especially downwind. In a big breeze junk owners will attest that they’re extremely easy to reef and, as an added bonus, are inherently self-tacking. There are obvious cost benefits to not having any standing rigging – no maintenance, replacement or (costs aside) anxiety about sudden failure. Because of the full battens, there’s also no flogging or flapping of sails and there’s fewer blind spots, like what you might experience with a large genoa on a sloop or cutter rig .

The main disadvantage that’s cited with junk rigs is there upwind deficiency. Although there are theories as to how to improve this, most junk owners will concede that the best they can do is come closer to how well a sloop travels upwind.

Like everything when it comes to choosing a rig, it’s about where you want to compromise. But junk rigs are definitely rife with attributes and many modern hull designs are candidates for retrofitting. And, you must admit… they’re pretty cool looking.

What's in a Rig Series:

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COLVIN GAZELLE: A Junk-Rigged Cruising Icon

American shipwright and boat designer Tom Colvin , who has long championed both metal construction and junk rigs on cruising sailboats, has designed about 300 small ships and boats over the course of a career that has now spanned about 70 years. He designed the original Gazelle for himself and his family to cruise aboard way back in 1967. She has since proven to be both his most successful and perhaps most interesting creation, with over 700 sisterships launched to date.

The first Gazelle was conceived as a no-frills light-displacement boat that could function both as a shoal-draft coastal cruiser on Chesapeake Bay, where Colvin was based at the time, and as a bluewater cruiser. She was built of 10-gauge Corten steel (i.e., about 3.4-mm thick), except for the main cabin top, which was marine plywood. The ballast consisted of lead bricks stacked in the keel and capped with cement. To save weight, Gazelle carried no engine and her hull form was long and lean. Her most distinctive feature was her schooner rig, which consisted of two Chinese junk sails mounted on lightly stayed aluminum masts with a Western-style triangular jib out front flying from a long bowsprit. She also carried a triangular “fisherman” sail between her masts or sometimes flew a loose-luffed reaching staysail from her main masthead.

By all accounts the first Gazelle sailed well, as is reflected in her performance ratios. She balanced well on all points of sail, her helm required little attention, except when running dead downwind, and she was reasonably fast. Colvin reported hitting speeds of around 9 knots sailing his boat. A sistership built soon after the first, Migrant , once reported a best day’s run of 202 miles and a best week’s average of 163 miles per day during an extended bluewater cruise. But Gazelle ’s windward performance, in Colvin’s own words, was “less than breathtaking.” She usually had to sail 50 degrees or more off the wind to maintain speed and course. Thanks to her narrow beam, shoal draft, and generous sail plan, she also needed reefing early, which is easy to do on any junk-rigged vessel.

Very few of Gazelle ’s many sisterships are as simple–or as light–as the original. Almost all have engines installed in the large midships cargo area that separates the main cabin from the aft cabin. Colvin himself installed a small 10-hp Sabb diesel in his Gazelle before selling her; most other owners have specified much larger engines and in some cases have grossly overpowered their boats. Most sisterships also have heavier interior joinery; in some cases the scantlings have also been increased. Colvin estimates the average displacement is about 6,000 pounds heavier than that of his first boat; he cites one extreme case where a boat was built almost 20,000 pounds overweight (before the rig and ballast were installed)!

On the other hand, most sisterships do have electrical systems, a feature lacking on the original, plus other modern amenities. Several Gazelles have been built in aluminum, which saves a lot of weight, and a small handful have also been built in wood. The vast majority are junk-rigged, though some have gaff-schooner or gaff-ketch rigs, which reportedly work well. The least successful sail plans, according to Colvin, are single-mast Marconi sloop and cutter rigs, as the boat has trouble standing up to a taller single spar and does not balance as well.

The interior lay-out is similar to those seen on modern center-cockpit boats, except there is no cockpit. Instead the helmsman is stationed on a flush-decked area between the main and aft cabins, directly abaft the mainmast and directly over the engine or cargo area.

The first Gazelle originally had a small double berth oriented fore and aft offset to starboard in the aft cabin. Colvin later changed this and installed separate single berths port and starboard, which he felt was more seamanlike. Many sisterships instead have large athwartship doubles all the way aft. These are very comfortable in a calm harbor, but are less comfortable when the boat is underway or rolling at anchor. They also interfere with the worm-gear steering system specified by Colvin and require the installation of hydraulic steering instead, which dampens the helm’s responsiveness. In the original design the aft cabin, which also houses the nav station, has no standing headroom, as the deck overhead is flush save for a large scuttle housing its forward-facing companionway. On several sisterships, however, an aft cabinhouse has been added.

The main cabin connects to the aft cabin belowdeck via the engine or cargo area, which has only stooping headroom. The main cabin does have full standing headroom and can be laid out several different ways. In most cases the forepeak has a narrow V-berth bisected by the keel-stepped foremast, which precludes installing a filler section to make the berth a double. On some boats the foremast is deck-stepped and the space is configured differently.

Directly behind the peak there is an athwartship head (the original design also calls for a second toilet in the aft cabin, though not in an enclosed head compartment). In the first Gazelle the galley was originally at the aft end of the main cabin, ranged around the companionway, with two outboard pilot berths and a pair of narrow settees either side of a drop-leaf table in the saloon forward of the galley. Colvin deemed this inadequate and later changed things around, placing the galley forward, just abaft the head, with one outboard pilot berth and a dinette aft to starboard of the companionway opposite a single straight settee. In the majority of sisterships, however, the galley seems to be aft, where the motion should be more comfortable in a seaway.

Used Gazelles are very attractively priced and construction costs keep escalating, so it is hard to justify building a new one. As of 2006, there was a firm in India, Kondo Syokai, offering to sell new Gazelles for a sail-away price of 50,000 British pounds, but according to Colvin they have only built one boat to date. If shopping for Gazelles on the brokerage market, be warned that listed specifications are often based on the original design displacement rather than actual displacement, hence may be wildly inaccurate.

Specifications

LOA : 49’0”

LOD : 42’2”

LWL : 33’0”

Beam: 11’4”

Draft: 3’10”

Ballast: 7,500 lbs.

Sail area: 854 sq.ft.

Water: 60 gal.

Displacement

–Original: 18,000 lbs.

–Average: 24,000 lbs.

–Original: 223

–Average: 298

–Original: 19.86

–Average: 16.39

Comfort ratio

–Original:30.45

–Average: 40.60

Capsize screening: 1.73

Nominal hull speed

–Original: 8.8 knots

–Average: 8.0 knots

Typical asking prices: $30K – $70K

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Looking for Gazelle owners and sailors…..

I recognize the interior photo’s in your article. That’s my boat, Summer Wind! We have a small tour and charter business in Philadelphia. Sailing to windward is an issue, as you mention, and I’m thinking about cambered junk sails in the future. I like the work that Arne Kverneland has done.

@Tom: I hope you don’t me borrowing the interior pix. She looks very nice! Thanks for stopping by.

I sailed a junk rigged Gazelle from New Zealand to Mexico via Pitcairn Island in 1988. It was quite painful at times. One passage took 7 days to do 296 miles. Good strong boat but sails like a well trimmed refrigerator. Down wind in 40kts she would get going!

Hi Tom, I actually sailed on the blue hulled Indigo pictured above and am a self proclaimed gazellaphile but have suffered the impure thoughts of redesigning Colvins sacred form to allow for better upwind performance. I am curious how the cambered panels works?

We own Madam Wong, a Colvin Junk rig, a sister ship to Kung-Fu-Tse. We have cambered junk sails and she sails pretty well in all conditions. The self-tacking rig is a dream to sail.

Hi All , Tomas E. Colvin died September 1, 2014. He was 89. He will be sorely missed.

@Kevin: I am very sorry to hear that, and very sorry for your loss. He was a great designer and yachtsman!

Sorry about Tom He was most helpful with information and replied with thoughtful answers to my many questions This is a great loss I own the blue hulled boat in the article It is on the Oregon coast and sails that mean water happily.

Curious about where my fathers old Gazelle is. It was sold to the Unruhs in 1995. At that time it was named NAAM. It was beautifully finished on the interior with 5 different kinds of wood, the hull was steel made in BC and shipped down to Bainbridge Island where my father built it out.

I am new to the junk rig and am reading and watching all I can and trying to make sense of it. Camber is a big issue. I read that the Chinese didn’t need it because natural fibers stretched and provided the curve. I wonder if natural fibers on the bottom and modern sailcloth at the top for a flat storm sail would be a way to go. They could be connected with a piano hinge a la Mingming 2. Has this been tried?

I own a Gazelle built in 1986 by Barnes. My copy of the hull offsets has become damaged. Does anyone have a copy they could help me with the missing numbers?

Good Afternoon All, I have been trying to find a copy of Mr. Colvin’s book Sail Making especially for chapters 13 and 15 ( standing rigging and hanging the junk sail). Does anyone know if Mr. Colvin’s is selling copies of his books? I have tried, unsuccessfully, to contact someone through the WEB page, email, and phone. I am a relatively new owner of a Gazelle, love the boat but have some questions about how the previous owner has her rigged. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Pat Reed [email protected]

Good afternoon again In my orevious post I said I was trying to find a copy of Mr. Colvin’s book on sailmaking or chapters 13 and 15. That was an error – the chapters I am most interested in are chapters 12 and 14.

Thanks in advance for any help

Hi NAncy Murray here she was beautifully done and Mac was a very good woodworker.

Hi I am hoping to get in contact with Kevin Colvin in regards to boat plans. I can be reached at [email protected] Cheers, Emil

Still looking…..

[quote=Nancy McKay]Curious about where my fathers old Gazelle is. It was sold to the Unruhs in 1995. At that time it was named NAAM. It was beautifully finished on the interior with 5 different kinds of wood, the hull was steel made in BC and shipped down to Bainbridge Island where my father built it out.

Hi NAncy Murray here she was beautifully done and Mac was a very good woodworker.[/quote] Hi Nancy, I think your boat is on Lopez Island where Steve and Ilene Unrah live. She is re-named Finn. But the sails are on our Gazelle ‘Vagrant, here in Tonga!

Not sure if this is still active but we sail a Gazelle and have just completed a 22 yr long circumnavigation. Now in Brazil. Vessel name is GAIA. We are Jim and Helen and our email address is [email protected] would love to hear from anybody re Gazelles. Specifically for now we need to know Tom’s specifications for the bowsprit on the Gazelle. We cracked our wood bowsprit in the the Indian Ocean and want to replace it with Aluminum or steel but do not have Tom’s scantlings on board. Any help would be appreciated via email please.

Jim and Helen

Hi all I am Stephen Nelson the proud new owner of Irena purchased from Capt George Wall a Gazelle 42 . Looking for sisterships her new home will be Scotts Ck Portsmouth Va. [email protected] 757 377 4470

Hi Nancy, I know exactly where Mac’s boat wound up, I’m the current owner! I’d love to get in touch with you and round out the story a bit. Also curious how “Shane” got the sails?

I’ve also tried to start a facebook group for Gazelle owners. Not sure if it will work but if it doesn’t we can always make a web page instead… https://www.facebook.com/groups/1644657069131996/

My father, John Burtchell, bought Colvin’s original Gazelle back in the early 70’s. He, my Mom, sister and brother lived aboard for 10 years or so, mostly in Melbourne Florida. They sold it and ended up in East Palatka Florida where my Dad passed away in 2000. Last I knew a family from Alaska bought it but I believe it’s changed hands a few times. Would LOVE to know where it is now.

I’ve just heard that it was in a Hurricane in the Carolina’s a few years ago and that it may have been destroyed. So sad.

Nice article! A friend is refurbishing a Gazelle and has not yet figured out how to rig the “fisherman,” primarily the tack. Can you provide any information or photos on how the “fisherman” is rigged? It has been great to see the Gazelle come back to life under his careful workmanship.

Hey Doug: Yikes. I have no firsthand experience flying a fisherman on a Gazelle. About a year once on an Alden staysail schooner, where it was pretty straightforward. But no, I have no answers to this particular question. Maybe someone else here can help??? cheers, charlie

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There has been a lot of interest about Junk Rigs lately with the success of several cruising yachts. This article is a result of the reading and notes I took while figuring out why the junk rig was so well liked by people who had tried it.

Junk Rig advantages and disadvantages

Junk is a boat, junk rig is, well, the traditional rig of a junk boat.

A Junk BOAT, is a classic Chinese sailing vessel of ancient origin, still widely found in many Asian countries. Junk can have up to five usually unstayed masts. The square - ish sails can be made of a number of materials. Old sacking, woven reeds, various cloths and modern fabrics have all been used. There are a number of full width battens which stiffen the sail. The design of the sail allows it to be fully or partially deployed. Because of the full length battens the sail can be easily and gradually dropped into lazy jacks.

Junks (boat) have no keel but have a large rudder which acts as a keel.

A junk RIG is the sail and all the lines and hardware that controls the sail.

Photo above is a private unpublished photo taken in Hong Kong around 1969 by Nick Boothby.

What is a junk rig and what are all the lines controlling it?

A junk sail/rig is a balanced lug sail more or less rectangular in shape. The rectangular shape sometimes is modified so that the top sections are fan shaped. It has a yard or top batten and a boom or lowest batten. Unlike the western lug sail, it is separated into several horizontal sections by a series of fairly rigid battens. These battens are almost always laced to the outside rather than positioned in pockets.

The battens have several key functions.

They distribute the loads and stresses throughout the sail reducing stress on any one point. This means that a quite large junk sails can be made from materials that would fail quickly in standard lug sails.

The Battens of the Junk Rig provide points of attachment and control for lines that attach to the leach, (trailing end) of the sail and allow for quite fine adjustment of the sail. Have a look at the photos below that clearly shows the lines leading to the stern of the boat on the left. These lines, which are connected, can control the sail with only one line. This is accomplished by a complex looking system of blocks. I say complex looking because once they are set up, then adjustments are very simply made.

Photo is scan of old print by Lai Afong [CC BY-SA 4.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

The battens also provide points of attachment for one or more downhauls. Simple sails have fewer but it is possible to have as many downhauls as there are battens. These downhauls simplify reefing. There is no need to tie up the reefed parts of the sail. The halyard is loosened, the sail lowers because of the weight of the battens, or is pulled down, the new downhaul from a higher batten is fastened and the halyard is made tight. Simple and quick sail reduction on all points of sail.

Since each batten is fastened to the mast using lines or parrel beads, the sail is better controlled.

Lazy Jacks take up the reefed or lowered sail

All Junk rigs have robust lazy jacks that controls the sail as it is lowered and keep the reefed sections out of the way. Unlike the western balanced lug, the top of the rig is controlled as it is lowered and falls into the lazyjacks without much argument.

The Junk Rig has a halyard

The halyard used on a junk rig has to be quite a sturdy affair and often has blocks and winches to raising the quite heavy sail.

What are the advantages of Balanced Lugs including Junk Rigs?

The balanced lug sail has long been used by pleasure boaters and the reasons are compelling.

• As in all square sails, you can put up a lot of sail on a shorter often unstayed mast.
• Because part of the sail lives in front of the mast, it is light to sheet and control.
• For the same reason, jibing is less of an issue than in sails that are all behind the mast. The feared accidental jibe is not as dangerous as in other rigs.
• It is simple to keep a good shape on all points of sail.
• Reefing is quite simple and can be done while underway.
• Even while heavily reefed, the sail still remains balanced. The centre of effort hardly shifts.
• It is a relatively simple sail to make.
• It is docile easily controlled sail.

There are a few disadvantages in the use of Balanced Lugs

• Unless lazy jacks are set up it can ungainly to lower. Since the sail is not laced on its sides it can flop around and billow.
• The yard end pivots down from the mast and points downward as it is lowered or the sail is reduced. It does not necessarily fall into the lazyjack easily and often has to be grabbed and controlled as it sways and bounces around.
• Sail can twist at the top.
• The luff in front of the mast, has to be quite strong because it is subject to a lot of tension from the yard which acts as a lever balanced at the mast.
• Like many of the other square sails, there is a good tack when the mast is on the front of the sail, and a bad tack where the mast is behind the sail and distorts the shape. In practice this is not as important as it would first seem to be. In my Sprit sail, the "bad" tack is sometimes faster. To eliminate this disadvantage, if the boat has more than one mast, the sails are attached in an opposite side so that there is always one sail with a good tack.

Most of these disadvantages have been eliminated in the junk rig.

What advantages and disadvantages does a Junk Rig Bring.

Upside of junk rigs.

The junk rig benefits from all the Western Balanced Lug advantages and a few of its own.

• Because of the large number of battens the sail is divided in many sections which can be individually controlled. Superior control is the greatest advantage of the Junk Rig.
• There is no need to round up and put the nose in the wind to lower sails. Because of the battens there is no fluttering of edges either.
• Each small sections is attached to the mast and acts as a small sail. This reduces the stress on any one spot of the sail. Any stress is much better distributed than in the Bermudian rig. Many junk boats had sails made of woven reeds or quite light fabric. This also means that if a section is damaged this is not propagated to the rest of the sail. Any old picture of junks will show sails often with a considerable number of holes and repairs.
• Junk rigs have lines from the end of each of the battens and this provides very accurate control on how the sail sets. Unwanted twist is practically eliminated. Twist is sometimes encouraged as a means of adding shape to a flat sail.
• The weight of the battens allow the sail to be reefed or taken down quite easily from all points of sail. The weight tensioning the sail while it is lowered. This stops the yard and other battens from pointing downwards and flopping around. In some rigs there are even downhauls from all the battens.
• The lazyjacks or topping lifts control the sail as it goes down and the sail folds itself safely without much human intervention. Because of all the control lines at the end of the battens, the top yard is controlled and stays in position ready to fall quietly into the lazy jack as do the other battens. Have a look at the end of this Youtube video where the sail is being lowered.

Downside of Junk Rig

All this control and safety comes at some cost.

• Extra cost is one of these. There are a lot of details on a junk rig.
• The rig is heavier than most. This means that even a relatively small sail is quite heavy to raise.
• With all the lines and blocks, it is more complex to set up. Once set up though it is no more complicated to get going than a bermudian rig.
• A traditional junk sail is flat and not as efficient as a shaped sail. Moving to winward in light wind is not easy. BUT if the sail has a fanned top rather than squarer, the top part of the sail can be allowed to twists and create some camber improving performance.
• Making a junk sail can be quite time consuming because there are a lot of little bits and bobs to deal with. There are attachment for the control lines at the back of the battens, for the lazy jacks, for the parrel beads or whatever method is used to tie the boom/battens to the mast, lots of chafing gear, lacing for the battens, attachment for the downhauls (sometimes placed on each batten). There are lots of blocks, grommets, roping and lines. All this adds up.
• Anywhere on a boat where there is a line, there is a chance it will get fouled up.

Modern junk Rigs have improved performance.

Modern junk rigs have been modified from traditional shapes to improve the set of the sail and provide additional lift.

Traditionally, the sail is cut flat. There are no curves or difference in seams (broadseaming) that add shape to the panels.

By modifying the shape of each little rectangle so that there some curve to the cut rather than just a straight line where the battens attach, the individual panels can be made to have shape and improve performance

Wikipedia article on the Princess Taiping which sailed from Taiwan to San Francisco and almost all the way back, she collided with another ship just a few kilometres from Taiwan. This voyage nevertheless demonstrated the seaworthiness of the junk boats and rigs.

More Junk Rig Links and Information

Because of the stellar qualities and success of the junk rig, many sailors are trying them out.

One of the complaints that recur about junk rig boats is how rare and difficult to buy they are. The junk rig association has a for sale section as well as many links and a forum

• Annie Hill sailed Badger and wrote "Voyaging on a Small Income." Her ship was designed by Jay Benford
• Roger Tailor has crised extensively in his Mingmings. Here is a youtube video of MingmingII
• Joshua Slocum sailed Liberdada and wrote the "voyage of Liberdade"

• Kasten Marine has a nice article Good diagram of how the front lines come together to a single line.
• Tom Colvin's Gazelle is the stuff of legends.
• Cruising Ashiki is an interesting blog Lower in the page there is some discussion and photos of panels with cambered sail vs completely flat junk sail.
• The must read book is Practical Junk Rig Design Aerodynamics and handling by Hasler and McLeod.
• Good Tutorial on Junk rig in the Cheap Pages.com

I try to be accurate and check my information, but mistakes happen.

Small Print

This information is for general knowledge and entertainment. I was interested and wrote up my notes for anyone who was also looking at junk sails. I'm not an expert, just a curious george.

Practical Boat Owner

• Digital edition

Winning ways with a junk rig

• David Harding
• November 16, 2023

David Harding looks at some of the latest developments in junk rig and meets the owners of different types of boat who are all convinced of its merits

Junk rigs are an attractive options due to their inherent simplicity and ease of handling. Credit: David Harding Credit: David Harding

Much has been happening in the world of the junk rig since PBO last took a close look at it.

Junk-rig enthusiasts are an innovative bunch and some of them never stop experimenting with ways to make their favourite rig simpler, faster or more efficient.

They love this particular sail boat rig for all sorts of reasons. It’s simple to sail with and can be controlled entirely from the cockpit.

Let the sheet go, and the sail swings out without flogging. Sheet in to go again. Drop the halyard and the whole lot comes down in a trice.

Need to reef ? Lower the halyard to reduce a panel – or two. Time to tack? Put the helm down.

The junk rig is unstayed so there are fewer stress points

Because the rig is unstayed , there’s no standing rigging to worry about: no bottlescrews, terminals, chainplates or lengths of wire.

That means fewer stress points and less chafing.

The yard and the multiple full-length battens mean that the panels in the sail are lightly loaded so there’s no need for high-tech, low-stretch fabrics.

Long-distance cruisers like the rig because of the low stresses and ease of repair.

Performance is good downwind because you can let the sail out to 90° so its entire area is projected to the wind: you don’t have to fly a spinnaker or even pole out the headsail and you can sail at any angle you choose.

Annie Hill’s FanShi can be easily reefed, a real benefit of the junk rig when sailing solo. Credit: Annie Hill

Gybing is a much gentler and safer operation too.

With all these points in its favour it’s easy to understand the junk’s popularity.

Traditionally there has been just one big problem: going to windward.

Junk sails have mostly been flat, and flat sails don’t generate much lift.

Even worse, they start to get fuller at precisely the wrong time, as the wind picks up and the battens start to bend.

Little wonder, then, that few sailors serious about performance have had any time for the junk rig.

However, a great deal of development work has gone on over the past 15 years or so.

Continues below…

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There are junk-rigged boats out there now that can give Bermudan-rigged equivalents a run for their money upwind and leave them for dead off the wind – assuming the Bermudan rig doesn’t fly a spinnaker .

The reason they have rarely made the headlines is that people are generally attracted to the junk rig because of its inherent simplicity and ease of handling, so the rigs tend to be found on comfortable cruising boats rather than those designed for speed.

With any sort of development, different people pursue different approaches and one great thing about junks is that there’s room for an incredibly diverse range of views.

While some are experimenting with wishbones and soft wing-sails, others are happy to stick to the tried and tested and to create their own rigs out of sticks and string – almost literally.

What they have in common, however, is an unshakeable belief in the concept of the junk rig.

They’re happy to share ideas between themselves and, just as importantly, with the yet-to-be converted.

To see where the junk rig is heading, I sought a range of views and approaches on an assortment of boats owned by people with varying budgets and ambitions.

I made the junk rig myself for less than £200 using a builder’s tarpaulin

This Bolger Micro epitomises the budget boat: just 4.6m (15ft) long and built of plywood, she sports a rig that the owner made himself for less than £200.

Like many designs by the American Phil Bolger, the Micro was conceived for simplicity of construction and is unlikely to be seen at the front of a racing fleet.

Nonetheless, as I found when watching her sail among a fleet of other junk-riggers, which included such known performers as the Varne 27 and Etap 26, she’s impressively slippery given her diminutive size.

Applecross sporting her new, home-made jumk mainsail and original mizen. Credit: David Harding

Applecross is owned by Martin Roberts and originally carried the cat yawl rig with sprit booms for which she was designed.

The trouble, explained Martin, was the length of the main boom: trying to manage a piece of wood 4.3m (14ft) long when trying to reef was awkward to say the least. ‘It was all a bit unwieldy in my view.’

After reading Practical Junk Rig by Blondie Hasler and Jock McLeod, Martin decided that a conversion was in order.

Calculating that the new rig would be about 1.5m (5ft) shorter than the original, he started by buying a second-hand solid wooden mast for £40.

Battening timber appropriately made the battens, which were stiffened after some experimentation by some sections of bamboo to remove the S-bending.

Martin Roberts finds that Applecross will mizzen and a tiller-line. Singlehanding is often sail herself with the help of the easy; a crew is an optional extra. Credit: David Harding

The sail itself was a £15 builder’s tarpaulin. Martin did the necessary stitching on a sewing machine at home and secured the sail to the battens with cable ties.

His biggest expense apart from the mast was the blocks, from Classic Marine, which cost £40.

Martin has simplified the Hasler/ McLeod rig by removing some of the control lines.

He accepts that some efficiency might be lost but reckons that, for his sailing on the East Coast rivers, working the tides is far more important.

He has kept the original mizzen . It works as a trim tab to balance the boat, which will happily sail herself for lengthy periods with a little help from a line around the tiller.

His only concern about the mizzen is the vulnerability of the bumkin to being knocked by other boats.

With the new rig, Martin finds Applecross much easier to handle.

Originally, if it looked as though reefing might be called for, he would either reef before setting out or decide not to go.

Now he will go out – and reef under way if need be.

He reckons that any loss in performance is minimal and is more than offset by his ability to carry the right amount of sail for the conditions.

I bought the original rig second-hand from Germany

John Dinnin’s love affair with the Liberty started when he owned a Montagu whaler – a boat to which he had been introduced during his time in the Navy and which provided the inspiration for David Thomas when he designed the Liberty for Hunter Boats.

‘I was on the way out of Faversham in the Whaler when I passed a Liberty going the other way,’ said John. ‘My words at the time were, ‘When I grow up, I want to be like you.’

When the old Whaler started leaking and calling for more maintenance, John decided it was time to move on and buy the boat he had been longing for.

He found a Liberty called Alouette and got on well with her in every respect until the masts broke – first the mizzen and then the main mast.

John Dinnin’s Hunter Liberty, Alouette , has twin masts and new cambered-panel sails

Liking Alouette but wanting a rig that would give him no concerns, John found himself in a quandary: did he sell her and buy something else, or re-rig her as a Minstrel (the same hull with a gunter rig)?

His mind was made up after he met Hans Schaeuble, a junk-rig enthusiast from Germany who has travelled far and wide in his own Liberty: junk was the solution.

The problem was that conversion would cost around £7,000 if he had a new professionally-built rig.

That was the same as he paid for the boat.

John’s meeting with Hans resulted in more than just a decision to convert to junk.

Alouette’ s owner John Dinnin

Hans had sold his first Liberty, with both its original cat rig and the twin-masted junk designed by Sunbird Marine, to a new owner in eastern Germany.

The new owner had re-fitted the original rig, so John got in touch with Hans who negotiated the re-sale of the junk rig, with its flat but distinctively coloured sails, for a very reasonable price.

That was in 2006, and since the sails were ‘getting a bit holey’, John decided to replace them with new cambered-panel sails made by Sails and Canvas in Topsham.

Like jointed battens, cambered panels increase the efficiency of the junk rig by putting some shape into the sails.

The battens are rigid but each panel is cut with some fullness in it.

The pros and cons of each approach have been widely debated in junk circles.

John finds that the new sails provide appreciably more drive than the originals and is delighted with the junk rig.

‘I wouldn’t dream of setting out in a Force 6 with the original Liberty,’ he told me. ‘It’s much more forgiving like this and shortening sail is so much easier.’

We have ways to get the best from a flat sail

One of the more performance-orientated boats to sport a junk rig, Taimen was bought new by her French owner and sailed with her original rig before being converted in 1998 by the late Robin Blain, who ran Sunbird Marine, designing and fitting junk rigs as well as acting as secretary of the Junk Rig Association.

Philip Corridan and Martin Lloyd knew the boat from when she had sailed across the channel to take part in a JRA rally, and didn’t hesitate when they heard she was for sale.

Philip has a long-standing association with junk rigs and had already converted an Iroquois catamaran, which he sailed around the world with her original rig in 1991-1993.

The Iroquois, with a mast in each hull and a recently-added mizzen, is based in Greece, while the Etap remains in the UK.

Martin too had junk experience before the Etap, having owned a Kingfisher 22.

The Etap 26 Taimen was given a conventional junk-rig conversion in 1998. Credit: David Harding

He wanted something bigger and reckoned that a fast hull with a junk rig should be a good combination.

Philip and Martin accept that the rig, with its conventional flat sail and flexible battens (in GRP tube of a section selected by computer program) is less efficient than the later jointed-batten or cambered- panel types, but they have found ways of overcoming its limitations to a certain extent.

They bring the traveller fully to windward in light airs to induce camber and twist into the sail.

As the sail becomes fuller in a freshening wind they drop the traveller down.

Offwind in fresh conditions they slide the sail forward over the mast – a technique regularly employed in junk-rig circles – to move the centre of pressure forward and inboard; otherwise the bend in the battens and increased fullness encourages the boat to round up.

Were they starting from scratch, neither Philip nor Martin would have the rig that’s fitted to Taimen , but they’re both experienced sailors who know how to get the best out of what they have.

One thing they have found to make an enormous difference, below the waterline this time, is their feathering Maxprop, which has added a good knot to the boat’s speed under sail.

After years with a junk rig I would never go back to Bermudan

An engineer with sailing experience in a wide range of boats, from the Tornado catamaran and Flying Dutchman to barges and fishing smacks, Bob had always wanted a Hunter Liberty.

He sailed Liberty for seven years with the yacht’s original unstayed cat-ketch rig.

Then he met the late Robin Blain of the Junk Rig Association, read Annie Hill’s book Voyaging on a Small Income , and the die was cast. ‘After we had started talking about junk rigs, that was it – I just did it.’

Bob decided to make his own rig but adopted a relatively high-tech approach.

He enlisted the help of Philip Corridan (see above), a structural engineer, builder of his own junk rigs, to calculate the section needed for the mast (he opted to have one rather than two).

Orlando , a Hunter Liberty with a single, jointed-batten sail. Credit: David Harding

He found two sections of aluminium tube of the right diameter and, with the help of some machining and a two-ton winch, joined them together.

Keen to avoid the performance compromises associated with a traditional flat junk sail, Bob also decided to make his own jointed battens.

Unlike conventional battens, these are tubular with joints (usually two) along their length that allow them to curve to a shape determined by the angle of the joints.

On Orlando , the jointed battens help induce camber into the sail…..

The joints were machined from Delrin plastic, each having a shoulder in the middle and a cone at each end with angles of 4° for the forward joint (giving a total of 8°) and 3° aft (a total of 6°).

Flexible, non-jointed ‘keep’ battens support the sail on the other side.

Bob bought the cloth for the sail, laid it out in the local village hall, marked and cut it and took it to his local sailmaker with instructions about how it should be joined together.

….while flexible battens on the other side provide support and smooth out the curve. Credit: David Harding

The total cost for the mast and sail came to around £1,000.

Three seasons on, Bob is delighted with the new rig.  ‘It’s so forgiving and so interesting,’ he says. ‘I would never go back to Bermudan.’

He does, however, have reservations about the term ‘junk rig’.

He maintains that, strictly speaking, it should be called a fully-battened lug rig and that the junk is the type of boat to which it was originally fitted.

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Junk Rig: Pros & Cons

The Pros and cons of junk rig

Junk rig is thought to date back to about 300AD, when it propelled Chinese craft with sails of woven bamboo fortified by battens of bamboo or pine. It has been in use in China ever since, although it has also been appreciated by yachtsmen over the years, not least Joshua Slocum, who chose a three-masted junk rig for his 35ft (11m) ‘canoe’ Liberdade, in which he sailed 5,500 miles in 1888. Slocum considered it “the most convenient boat rig in the entire world”.

The real champion in the western world, however, was Blondie Hasler, who commissioned the heavily-modified, junk-rigged Nordic Folkboat Jester in 1953 and sailed her in the first OSTAR in 1960. Other notable junk rig sailors have included Bill King (Galway Blazer) and the ascetic Roger Taylor, who sails his junk-rigged Corribee Mingming to extreme northern latitudes. It’s also known as ‘Chinese lug rig’ and generally thought to be the preserve of cranks.

It is, in fact, a singular rig with great qualities, particularly to the short-handed cruising sailor, and is overlooked only by the ignorant. The ‘bible’ on the subject is Practical Junk Rig by HG Hasler and JK McLeod.

1 Very easy raising, lowering and reefing 

2 Soft gybing due to the sail area before the mast

3 No flogging as the sail is rigid

4 No standing rigging, meaning no whistling in the shrouds, and greater simplicity

5 Great all-round visibility

6 Good ability off the wind or before it without the need for extra downwind sails

1 More expensive and complex to build/retrofit 

2 Not great to windward in light airs

3 To some, the unusual appearance 

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Yachting World

• Digital Edition

Sailing a junk rigged schooner in Greenland

• Tom Cunliffe
• February 28, 2023

A resourceful single-handed sailor overcomes obstacles while sailing a junk-rigged schooner in Greenland. Introduced by Tom Cunliffe

Dave Leet’s Nomad is a junk-rigged schooner which he sails mostly single-handed . He certainly puts the miles in, because although this article is about his experiences in West Greenland, when I wrote to him about his work he was in Martinique where he’d been waiting out Covid.

The account here is edited from three articles written from his blog ( svnomad.blogspot.com ) for the magazine of the excellent Junk Rig Association. Talking with Dave makes crystal clear his view that remote places like Greenland should only be cruised by sailors with a totally self-help attitude, and the way he rebuilds his gearbox to replace the seals from spares which he ‘just happens to have on board’ says a great deal about this modest man.

Leet also notes that the Greenland and Canadian authorities give yachts no hassle so long as they clear in, keep a low profile and stay out of trouble. His cruise to the top of Disko Bay at 70° North, where ice conditions slip him the wink that it’s time to turn south, is exemplary. To be alone on one’s boat, sharing the bay with only icebergs in the Arctic twilight as the aurora blazes above you is an experience granted to very few.

Dave Leet’s blog articles were published in the Junk Rig Association’s magazine

Dave Leet’s junk rig adventure

Well rested and with a full load of fuel, Nomad headed toward the source of all the ice floating around Disko Bay. Icebergs became more numerous as I approached the shoreline, and this was my first experience navigating close-up to them in bright light. They are a brilliant white that stands out against the blue sky, quite unlike their usual near-invisibility in foggy overcast conditions.

Approaching Quasigiannguit late in the day it was easy to work around a number of bergs in the harbour entrance and head for the far end of the bay. Anchoring in water as shallow as possible limits the size of iceberg that can run into your boat.

Leaving the harbour and steering around an ever-increasing number of bergs I headed up towards what looked like a solid wall of ice in the distance. Sailing closer revealed there was space to get between the bergs, where many were grounded near shore. Two rocks noted on the chart were hidden in the ice field, but no soundings are given in this area. Carefully working through the ice I found that the Nordre Huse anchorage was clear.

A strong breeze began blowing down the fjord late in the day so I felt it was safe to spend the night behind the icefield. It was a surreal experience with ice coloured by the twilit arctic night and the sounds of the glacier moving, clearly audible through the hull. Outside, an occasional sound like thunder could be heard as pieces of glacier broke off.

It’s only a few miles around the glacier face to Illulissat, so I spent a fascinating morning motoring between the gigantic icebergs at the front of the glacier. Entering the tiny inner harbour I found it extremely crowded with no convenient place to tie up Nomad . With some difficulty I got her turned around and out of the harbour. The three cruise ships in town supplied enough encouragement for me to clear off and head instead for the tiny village of Oquaatsut with its sheltered bay for the night.

Sometimes the best planning doesn’t help in the remote areas of the Arctic. After carefully working my way into an unsurveyed area I was greeted by the sight of a small berg grounded in the cove and the shallow areas full of bergy bits. It was obvious where the local fishermen tied to the rock wall in 40ft of water, but I was not comfortable with the amount of ice coming in with the wind so I retreated to a cove with a sandy patch showing at low tide.

The north entrance to Smallesund appeared closed by ice, but getting nearer I could see there was space enough to get through by the rock wall. Torssukkatak was full of ice, but navigable. Here at 70°N looking down the ice-choked Vaigat channel north of Disko Island I reluctantly decided it was time to head south towards the deep water around the islands on the west coast of Arve Prinsens Ejland.

It was no problem navigating the uncharted channels between them to the abandoned settlement at Ritenbank where I found a large shallow shelf allowing good anchorage with some current.

Close ice encounter.

Ice and smoke

Early in the morning I was awoken when a resounding thump shook the boat. Sitting up, all that could be seen out the portholes was a wall of ice. Nomad and an iceberg had collided in the tidal current. The berg had run aground, so I pushed Nomad clear of it and the current kept us apart.

Pulling up the anchor chain eventually brought the boat against the iceberg again, but fortunately the iceberg had just missed parking on top of my anchor so I was able to get underway without having to wait for another tide to float it clear. It was another beautiful sunny arctic day as I motored across the bay bound for Qeqertarsuaq on the south shore of Disko Island, intent on doing some hiking.

I was dodging large icebergs and enjoying the otherworldly scenery of Disko Island when smoke started coming out of the open hatch. Expecting a fire, I was relieved to find the gearbox had overheated and the only thing burning was its seals. Hoisting full sail, I was able to coax Nomad another mile away from shore in the faintest breath of wind while the gearbox cooled enough for me to touch it. It was still full of oil, but this was very burnt so I changed it. Back in gear, the shaft turned slowly but would not speed up even at full throttle.

Ruined Norse village of Hvalsey

I worked every breeze that came by throughout the night keeping Nomad away from the icebergs and attempting to head across the bay towards Aasiaat where I could attack the machinery in a safe berth. Making less than four miles overnight I was considering all manner of possibilities when troubleshooting revealed that the gearbox would provide full power in reverse.

Problem solved! I’d be able to back all the way to Aasiaat, 24 miles distant. I hurriedly dropped all the sails, eager to get moving after a long, unproductive night, but in my sleep-deprived state I forgot to check both sides of the boat for lines in the water. With the sails lowered I promptly backed over the junk rig’s port main ‘sheetlet’, stalling the engine. After spending some time trying to clear the prop from on deck I realised there was only one solution. I retrieved my diving gear stored in various places around the boat and set up my scuba tank on deck. With my dexterity impaired by wetsuit gloves and ice cold water I was unable to free the line from the propshaft, so I returned with a knife and cut it clear.

After wriggling out of my wetsuit I took a moment to warm up before throwing the dive gear below and starting the engine. I then began the tedious task of backing across the bay steering from one iceberg to the next as my course was too erratic to follow the compass. As I closed the coast near Aasiaat, a large cruise ship went by with a number of tourists standing on deck watching me. I can only wonder at what they thought, watching a schooner zigzagging backwards between the icebergs.

The ice is constantly on the move

Having failed at several attempts to back between the rocks guarding the inner passage to Aasiaat, I felt a faint breeze near shore. Up went the jib and foresail, the main being out of service with its sheetlet cut. This proved enough combined with the propeller turning slowly ahead to get the boat moving. Nomad made it between the rocks without incident and slowly crawled into the harbour, reaching speeds of up to two knots.

Dismantling the gearbox the next morning I quickly found the problem. By pure chance I happened to have the spare parts on board to repair it, but it cost five days of the short Greenland sailing season and I was still 600 miles from the southern tip of the land.

Some days later, well down the coast with a good sailing wind, I departed Paamiut bound for the inside passage at Nunarsuit, the large island at Kap Desolation.

The shimmering lights of the Aurora Borealis provided a magical display

Northern lights

Numerous icebergs were floating around as I made my way into the tiny, ice-free anchorage at Tunulliatsiaap Nunaa. The sunset was magnificent, illuminating the rocks and icebergs with reds and golds reflecting on the still waters. I ducked below to make dinner as the temperature plunged below freezing without the sun. Opening the hatch to toss out some onion skins I was awestruck by the sight of the sky shimmering in the green waves of the Aurora Borealis. Dinner forgotten, I sat on deck watching the aurora until they faded away.

There were numerous icebergs to dodge crossing the Braedefjord but I was able to get through to Tugtutoq island without a lengthy detour offshore. Sildefjord is at the east end of Tugtutoq island with a well protected basin to anchor in at the end of the fjord. Climbing the mountains, there were many patches of blueberries and the ice cap was clearly visible from the top across the berg-studded Braedefjord.

Article continues below…

The sun was setting in the canyon to the west as I made my way back to sea level. A few reindeer came down, and as the light faded grey streamers appeared at the mountaintops and slowly developed into a brilliant display of the aurora covering the entire sky above the fjord.

In the morning the boat was surrounded by fresh ice and my wet laundry was frozen solid on the lifelines so I reluctantly decided to move on before I got frozen in.

Qaqortoq has a busy harbour and is the largest town in southern Greenland. Nomad was comfortably rafted up to a fishing boat on the far side of the harbour where I changed the oil and topped off the fuel tanks again. Ten miles up Qaqortoq Fjord lies the ancient Norse village of Hvalsey, the best preserved Norse ruins in Greenland. I spent two days anchored at Hvalsey, hiking and examining the ruins in an absolute windless silence before returning to Qaqortoq.

Spectacular sunsets are a feature of high latitudes cruising in Greenland

After studying the weather beyond the bottom of Greenland for a few days, the possibility of finding a gap between the storms off Kap Farvel to reach the Azores did not look good. This being the second week of October and not wanting to risk being stuck here for the winter it was time for Plan B. There was a depression passing just to the south, so I backtracked to Kap Desolation and sailed across the Labrador Sea just above 60°N to avoid the west winds from the low. Nomad passed the last iceberg of the trip at the edge of the continental shelf near Nain and made her way into Makkovik Labrador as the wind began blowing from the south with the approach of the next storm system.

Arctic essentials

Careful preparation paid off for this Arctic voyage and there were no serious problems. There are, however, a few things to change on deck and some more equipment that would make life much easier before returning to the north. Top of the list is a pilothouse or at least some shelter for steering and watch-standing. Reels for the 122m shore lines would greatly aid deploying and retrieving them. A bus heater plumbed into the main engine would enable the Refleks cabin heater to be shut down when motoring, saving quite a bit of fuel. A Navtex receiver and an Iridium device to receive weather reports and ice charts would be extremely useful. I couldn’t receive weather-fax charts on the shortwave receiver at all. And a forward-looking sonar would be a big help navigating the many unsurveyed areas on the charts.

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24' Tasman Junk Rigged Yacht Plans

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Description

The Tasman is a multi-chine plywood yacht designed for long distance sailing for 2 crew, which uses an egg-box frame system of plywood fore and aft girders slotted together with plywood bulkheads - once stringers have been fitted, the ply hull panels are then applied making construction quite simple.

There are 2 steel bilge plates which are housed in the bunk fronts and the junk mast is hinged in a tabernacle for easy lowering. Steering etc is set up for control from inside the yacht although there is a cockpit and outboard well.

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Listings are generally in alphabetical order. Comments in quotes are from manufacturers' sites or from members. The appearance of any link here does not imply JRA endorsement

The Aluminium Lighting Company Ltd Croeserw Industrial Estate Eastern Avenue Cymmer PORT TALBOT SA13 3PB Telephone: 01639 852502 Fax: 01639 852263 E: [email protected] www.aluminium-lighting.com

Several members have converted Freedom hulls to junk in order to take advantage of their masts being in the right places, thus avoiding a conversion that may otherwise intrude into or compromise the accomodation. As Freedoms' carbon fibre masts age they have been known to develop 'circumferential cracking in the exterior surface'. This article by the former chief engineer of Freedom mast builds. He explains how to check for these, if a fix is necessary, and if so how to do it. The article is also freely downloadable from www.freedomyachts.org

Listings are generally in alphabetical order. Comments in quotes are from manufacturers' sites or from members. The appearance of any link here does not imply JRA endorsement.

Germany  

Sebastian Hentschel  Segelmacherei Tuchwerkstatt

Salinenstraße 20      

17489 Greifswald

Deutschland

E-Mail:  [email protected]

Sebastian's site now has a section in English. Sebastian speaks and writes English well. He and his mate Nora are known for their grand JR Sloop  Peregrine.

Chris Scanes

EXE SAILS and COVERS LTD

Unit 1, Topsham Units, Dart Business Park, TOPSHAM, UK EX3 0QH

From 5/9/2013 www.exesails.com

Tel: +44 (0)1392 876109 or from 5/9/2013 01392 874449

Email: [email protected]    or from 5/9/2013 

[email protected]

USA   

Dabbler Sails Sole proprietorship with experience of making junk sails.

Dabbler Sails PO Box 235 Wicomico Church, VA 22579 ph/fax 804 580 8723 Email: [email protected]