Following the migration of gold, some basic economics, and in the “color me impressed!” department…
So, yeah, junk rig.
Back when I was hanging out in the bay area in the 70s, I had my first experience with the rig because a guy down the dock (Derek Van Loan) was converting sailboats over to the junk rig. I found the converted sailboat interesting and the concept of free-standing masts seemed to make a lot of sense.
Fast forward some years and I’m in Europe, where lots of junk folk preaching the advantages of Chinese lugs. Mainly that they’re awesome, have shorter masts with no standing rigging, less strings to pull, and heel less than normal sailboats. This pretty much sold me on the idea. Hell, I even joined the JRA and I’m still a member.
That said, I have a couple of niggles on the junk rig shown in my last post. My knee-jerk reaction is the mast is too tall. My idea of a perfect boat is where the mast is as close to the boats LOA as possible. In fact, a lot of modern junk design in the 70s and 80s were based on short masts. For example, here’s the mast on Loose Moose 2 while doing the French Canals…
Of course, LM2 was a gaff cat rather than a junk rig but it would have been very easy to replace the gaff rig with a junk. In hindsight, the junk rig would have been a better choice than the gaff. Though an even better rig would have been the balanced lug like we had on our first Loose Moose…
As it happens, Bolger’s Jessie Cooper design is just about the same size as the Westerly Centaur. The balanced lug main is more powerful than either the junk or sloop rig. It’s also DIY friendly, as well as being much less expensive.
So far, so good, right?
Actually the Centaur would be a great test bed for a couple of ideas I’d love to try. For starters, I’ve long thought most free standing masts are either too old tech or too high tech and what we should be using is appropriate tech. In the case of the Westerly, a strip planked plywood/glass/carbon spar would be easy to build, as well as inexpensive compared to a solid or high tech spar.
Wait! There’s more.
I’ve long thought a minimally stayed spar can often make more sense than an unstayed spar. Adding a forestay and a couple of running backstays would allow a smaller diameter mast resulting in a lighter, less expensive spar. Throw in the fact that since we have a forestay, it would make the addition of a blade jib or downwind sails which makes all kinds of sense.
Obviously, such a rig would scandalize a lot of folks. Evolving onwards from the same old same often does. Still, it’s worth thinking about.
So, more thoughts on what I’d do…
If the Centaur had a working rig I’d go with that.
If the Centaur needed a rig replacement I’d go with the Jessie Cooper rig and swap the mizzen for a blade jib. Maybe even do the balanced lug sail as a roller-furler.
All that and I’d continue with the “if it ain’t broke don’t fix it” mantra.
Definitely in the mast within LOA camp. I high peak gunter/gaff with a jib was the rig i put on my ferro boat, with just the 2 shrouds and a forestay. It would have been a better balanced rig if the mast was further aft and a bigger headsail, but better to be sailing slowly than not sailing at all. Got us down to the Med ok.
Today, would go for the balanced lug with a mizzen on anything 18-30ft. Im not sure the lighter mast with runners would be cheaper than a spar built up with planks, depends where you are and what is available. Those carbon/glass sheath have such a different modulas to wood, that I have heard they are not such a great match. A PVC pipe with a glass overlay would probably be better if you can deal with glassing such a long thing.
There was yet another “free” Albin Vega up here this week, and a Westerly Pageant for a song.
Then again……if one was to build up a plywood box section mast like those of Rabl, I could see “some” benefit of a composite overlay, all those had very simple staying.
The spar building method I was speaking of was strip planking with 5mm or 6mm ply for a free-standing mast. H4nce the need for some glass and carbon in the mix. More like this.
That said,where a box section mast makes sense Reuel Parker’s spar adventure in plywood makes more sense.
Good links! I was familiar with Reuel method, but had not seen that strip plank system. That seems like a whole lot of extra work with forms and internal/external layups. Worthwhile if you are looking for lightest spar possible. It would most likely test my patience with the sticky stuff too.
I have 30ft (now 20) spar out back from 1947, solid fir. Quite the lump even with 10ft cut off. Still considering ripping down the original centre glue line to hollow out the centre for cables and to reduce weight. Some fine scarph joints in it, and all before epoxy, not a single sign of a joint opening up anywhere.
On the 32 Pearson we re-rigged to junk rig we went with one of TColvins favorite masts: a relatively small diameter steel pipe. We stepped it on the keel top after punching a hole in the deck and reinforcing the whole partners area. And, like TC, we did a simple, relatively loose shroud on each side and forestay which hosted a jib. To not foul the yard we added really small spreaders and easy to weld on and notch. To the naked eye the pipe looked woefully skinny but we followed TCs specs for sizing it to different sized sails and it worked well. A added bennie was all the lugs on top just got easily welded to the pipe. It’s no wonder TC loved designing for metal boats.