Conversion to Junk RIg

[chriss999]

Proper polar diagrams? Really? No offense, but that is a little over the top. It's just a rig - in my opinion the best rig for cruising - but others will have different opinions on that, which is fine - but there is a much chance of me providing 'polar diagrams of measured speeds' as me becoming the world's sexiest man in 2024 .

That's fine if you are not convinced it is an improvement over a Bermudan rig. However, what you should understand is that the junk rig is hundreds, if not thousands of years older than the bermudan / marconi rig. The bermudan rig is a relatively modern idea, brought about chiefly for racing. So, having cleared that up, no, there is no way a junk rig can compete,all things being equal. with a bermudan rig on the same boat, if we are talking about speed.

But, we are not all of us interested in racing around the cans. And I would point out the abomination of bermudan rig cat condo's which are basically glorified motor sailors. So, for me it is always the boat first, the rig comes second.
The point being, there are some rubbish boats set up with Bermudan rig, and some rubbish boats set up with Junk rig. Once you have a good boat, you then make your decision on what rig is best...many just go with the status quo of keeping the original rig which is very very likely to be Bermudan,or if an older classic, possibly a Gaff. So, I don't blame people for keeping those rigs - converting to a properly well set up Junk rig is not cheap - there is a whole lot of ballyhoola rubbish written by junk rig aficionado's on how supposedly "cheap" it is - if you want quality, if you want a 'performance' junk rig - no, it 'aint cheap..
My Contessa would have cost me at least $NZD 25,000 to convert to junk rig when you take into account the carbon mast, the blocks, the labour of my sailmaker, and the labour to build the keel step and mast partners, the running rigging etc etc. Like a lot of things in life that bring one pleasure - it makes no economic sense, but the ole 'you pays yer money and makes your choice' is what it really boils down to.

For me, I want a rig that I can solo while raising and (especially) lower sail in a nano-second (and I do mean seconds) in all wind conditions, on any point of sail, while metaphorically wearing my slippers in the cockpit or from the companionway. I also want a rig that I do not have to touch a winch when I tack. And I am prepared to put up with a little less speed - that is the trade off.

However, while I never got the chance as Contessa 26'ers are very rare in NZ, I have no doubt that I could hold my own - speed wise - against a bermudan rigged Contessa in cruising mode without tricked out laminated sails and other high end bermudan sail and rig configurations that you would get on, say, Jeremy Rogers (rest in peace) Contessa 26 that he campaigned in the Round Island Races some years back - which are also very expensive...I dare say most Contessa owners have sails that are 5 or 10 years old, as do most average joe cruising sailors or weekend warriors in whatever make of boat.

In closing, their is a lot of claptrap written about junk rig from people that have never sailed in one - and a good one at that. There are plenty of turtle like boats that were non performers under bermudan, that are even worse performance under junk post conversion.
There is also a lot of claptrap written by some junk rig afficianando's too, especially about the supposed 'cheap' cost of the rig. I have hopefully busted that big lie in this post.

So, at the risk of belabouring the point - first find a boat that sails well, that you don't have to flick on the motor in 10 knots of wind to get anywhere, and rig the boat as you wish. I choose to rig mine as junk, and will continue to do so for the reasons outlaid.

Cheers

I agree with most of that, but my junk rig actually WAS cheap to run and to maintain. Because of the low stress on the sheets etc I used cheap blocks and light rope. The main money I spent was on the sail, which will last for years.
Converting from Bermudan to junk would be the expensive bit, I agree. But so would converting from junk rig to bermudan.

 

[MisterBaxter]

I think it's not that a whole new junk rig is cheap; only that a whole new Bermudan rig - mast, sails, running and standing rigging, deck hardware and all - would be a great deal more expensive, so the junk is cheap by comparison.
The other thing about a junk rig is that in theory at least, it can be given a good deal more sail area in the basic rig, because it's easy to reef and the mast is quite short for any given sail area.