Mingming's Northern Voyage 2007

[080653]

Re: Mingming\'s Northern Voyage 2007

I've tried aluminium battens with 1 & 2 joints before settling on a single joint on my old Westerly Longbow. I also flew a jib on occations like you. I lost joints out at sea so they need positive fastenings and the chafe on the sail was a problem. I now have a Kingfisher with standard Hasler rig + jib. I like to KISS principle so intend to leave it alone. Look forward to meeting you on the Azores,Best of luck

 

[JunkMing]

Re: Mingming\'s Northern Voyage 2007

That's a really interesting post. Having spent last weekend re-assessing the state of my Hasler-type sail and battens, I've decided to stick with them as they are. I can hand sew repairs to my mainsail for nowt, and repair and improve the broken battens for about £20. This compares with a quote for well over £2000 for a new (cambered) sail and articulating aluminium battens. Like you I prefer what I know and can fix easily. I was able to do all the repairs to my broken battens from the hatch, without going on deck. I doubt this would be possible for failing connections in articulated battens. I'm not convinced either that I want a fully cambered sail. The junk rig comes into its own in heavy weather, when the flat sail is quite efficient just feathering into the wind. A cambered sail would probably exert much more heeling moment. The gain in windward performance of a cambered sail may be significant in smoothish inshore conditions, but not terribly relevant in offshore conditions, where you have to sail fairly free anyway, to avoid being stopped dead. Could it be that too much 'westernisation' and fiddling with a very sound and subtle oriental concept, developed over a two thousand year period, ends up making us lose sight of the benefits of the original?

Roger