Erfahrungen… / The Rig

 

Sailing teaches you how to persevere, but also how to accept what G-d provides you, and rejoice when the current takes you where you "want" to go…

 

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Das Boot ist sehr stabil, lässt sich so schnell von Wind und Welle nicht aus der Ruhe bringen.

Das Segel ist innerhalb weniger Sekunden vom Cockpit aus zu reffen und dadurch direkt den Windverhältnissen anzupassen.

Das gibt einem eine große Sicherheit.

Es ist absolut einhandtauglich.

 

Die Segelmanöver sind sehr einfach: 

Nur Ruder legen, das war's.

Auch die Halse ist viel unkritischer als beim Bermudarigg (youtube) und die Gefahr, den Großbaum abzubekommen existiert in der Plicht ebenfalls nicht!

 

Insgesamt ist das stäbige Boot aufgrund seiner Stabilität und der einfachen Handhabung bestens geeignet für Einhandsegler, Familien und Segelanfänger.

 

Ideal ist das Boot auch für alle Watt- und Tiedengewässer, da es durch die Kimmkiele aufrecht trockenfällt.

Der geringe Tiefgang von 71 cm eröffnet auch Flachwasserreviere wie Seen oder Boddengewässer.

 

Der Vorvorbesitzer ist zwei Mal für jeweils 4 Wochen zu zweit auf der Ostsee gesegelt (2009 Fehmarn und Lübecker Bucht, 2010 Fehmarn, Dänische Südsee, Schlei, Kieler Bucht).

 

Wer auf Stehhöhe verzichten kann, findet hier ein angenehmes und sicheres Urlaubsboot, das lange Spass macht.

Für Wochenendtörns könnte man auch mit kleinerer Familie segeln (wenn die Kinder noch nicht so groß sind, da die Kojen im Bug doch etwas eng sind für Erwachsene) – letztere lassen sich ansonsten auch gut als Stauraum nutzen.

 

Der Innenbereich ist aufgeteilt in den "Salon" (2 Kojen), 2 kleine Räume (für Elektrik, Stauraum und Toilettenraum) und dem Bugbereich (2 kleine Kojen).

 

Die KingFisher ist ein sehr freundliches Boot, dass einem trotz seiner Grösse das Gefühl höchster Sicherheit und Geborgenheit vermittelt.

 

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Über das Dschunkenrigg:

Das Segel der Chinesen gilt als ältestes Segel der Welt und wurde während der letzten 1500 Jahre kaum mehr verändert. Dies deutet darauf hin, dass dieser Segeltyp in höchstem Maß optimiert ist. Es ist ein quasi durchgelattetes Luggersegel.

Der Hauptvorteil dieses Segels ist die leichte Bedienbarkeit und gute Trimmbarkeit. Vor allem ist das Setzen und Reffen des Segels bei jedem Kurs zum Wind möglich. Aufgrund der niedrigen Materialanforderungen ist dieses leistungsfähige Rigg auch für kostengünstiges Segeln hervorragend geeignet.

 

Allen die noch nie ein Djunkenrigg gesegelt sind, sei gesagt: es segelt, und es segelt besser als man denkt; und ja, man kann damit kreuzen und nochmals: ja es ist kinderleicht zu bedienen – und vor allem zu reffen!

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Das Dschunkenrigg ist für sein Alter ernorm fortschrittlich, wenn du es vergleichst, bestehen erstaunliche Ähnlichkeiten zwischen modernen durchgelatteten Segeln und Dschunkenriggs früherer Jahre. Auch hier hast du wieder das Problem, dass du eine obere Spreizstange hoch im Mast fährst und da oben ist Gewicht immer schlecht. Da die Spreizstange immer in Lee am Mast vorbei nach vorn ragt, sind Wenden etwas komplizierter, da sie jedesmal erst etwas gefiert werden muss. Dafür ist aerodynamisch die Anströmung der wichtigen Leeseite des Segels auch immer vom Mast ungestört. Der Umriss ist wegen altmodischer Materialien meist niedriger als bei modernen Segeln, aber das ist kein Muss. Ich bin überzeugt, auch ein modernes Dschunkenrigg würde eine sehr gute Höhe am Wind laufen.

Wenn du die Handhabung vergleichst, hat sich das Hochrigg mit durchgehenden Latten stark verbessert. Früher war das Bergen oder das Reffen des stark killenden Segels bei Wind oft recht schwierig. … Insgesamt sind Gaffel- und Dschunkenrigg grundsätzlich der Hochtakelung kaum unterlegen, die Hochtakelung ist nur seit Jahrzehnten immer weiterentwickelt worden, einfacher und billiger zu bauen, für uns Segeler ein gewohnterer Anblick und vom Gewicht her etwas leichter. Das sind die ausschlaggebenden Gründe für die Serienboothersteller. …

 

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The junk rig is incomparably safe, seamanlike and easy to handle.

It is particularly suitable for small boats and for shorthand or family sailing in all weather.

– H.G. Hasler

 

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What about the Junk Rig?

 

Is the Junk Rig Suited to Modern Cruising...?

 

The junk rig shares many of the virtues of the gaff rig. The junk rig or "Chinese lug rig" is easy to handle, very easy to reef, easy and inexpensive to build, easy to rig, has no complex hardware, requires no winches, is easy to maintain, involves very low rigging stresses, provides a low center of effort so requires less beam or depth of keel, and at least in my view, looks great!

That is quite an impressive list of positive attributes… 

The following is not intended to be a comprehensive guide to the junk rig. It is however a good introduction to a few of the advantages offered by the Chinese lug, or junk rig. Due to its excellent qualities for blue water voyaging, I believe the junk rig has much to offer. 

 

Some Advantages Specific to the Junk Rig

 

Reefing:

The ease of reefing a junk rig is legendary. Perhaps it is best illustrated with a brief story about sailing one quite windy day off Port Townsend on Migrant, sister ship to Colvin's Gazelle. This was in 1979….

Naturally curious, I asked the skipper about reefing the junk rig. He had just passed around fresh mugs of hot chocolate, so I expected a brief discourse on the subject. Instead, without saying anything he walked over to the main mast and with one hand released the main halyard just enough to let it slip over the belaying pin, paying out about half of it and then belaying it again. The boat was reefed. He did not put down his mug of hot chocolate… and he did not spill any.

 

Suitability to Cruising Boats:

Many hull forms will handle the junk rig very nicely. As we are now seeing, fully battened sails are the "state of the art" on high performance sailing craft, for example on the America's Cup contenders. Given proper design, there is no reason the junk rig cannot be adapted to performance oriented cruising boats. An excellent combination is also the use of a fairly traditional hull form with the junk rig.

 

As with any rig, there must be correct balance, and sufficient sail area, with an efficient plan form given to the sails. In my view, there will ideally not be any "western" sails such as a jib, and the rig should approach that of a true ocean going Chinese junk. … That said, the Junk Rig can be adapted to most of our sailing designs, and even to a few of our motor yacht designs.

 

Suitability to Motor Sailors:

A motor sailor can make excellent use of the junk rig. A motor sailor can be 100% sailing vessel, as well as being 100% capable under power…. In other words, the sails are provided primarily for the purpose of auxiliary propulsion, rather than primary propulsion. The sails serve the function of being the "get-home" motive power in the case of engine failure. In addition, the sails provide extra boost while motoring when the wind favors. As a bonus, the sails and rig provide excellent roll dampening. For this purpose, the junk rig is ideal.

 

Simplicity:

With a schooner or ketch configuration arranged in true Chinese junk fashion, therefore not having a western jib, there would be just two junk sails, therefore just two halyards total. For a larger vessel, a small mizzen or small fore sail can be used, or both, also ideally a junk sail.

 

Ease of use:

On any cruising vessel, be it a sail boat or a motor sailor, it seems particularly advantageous to have the ability to instantly reef the sails, or to lower them completely without any fooling around. Sail and battens collect neatly in the lazy jacks. Once down, you can go to the sail to throw a line around the lowered battens if necessary. With proper lazy jacks, there is absolutely no drama to this.

 

Flogging / Luffing:

There is no sail flapping and flogging when passing through the eye of the wind, either while tacking or jibing.

 

Safety:

Individual "sheetlets" are lead to each batten, a full set of sheetlets on each side, so the sails are self tending. The sail shape can be controlled very effectively. This is quite a safe arrangement as well. The multiple sheets, one to each batten, make jibes very gentle, so there is no drama if someone inadvertently puts the helm too far over. This "soft jibe" effect is augmented by there being a fair sized portion of the sail forward of the mast, as a counter force. This makes the junk rig very forgiving for family sailing.

 

Sail Stress:

Having multiple battens, the sails can be made of somewhat lighter material. Sail "cut" is not usually regarded as being critical, and most often junk sails are built "flat" rather than being cambered.

 

Appearance:

In my view, the junk rig looks "right" on many vessels, especially so with a somewhat "traditional" hull form. Given the right match to the hull form underneath, in my eyes the junk rig is very handsome. This can be applied especially well to motor sailing types. …

 

Spars & Rigging

 

Spars:

Spars can be solid wood as is quite traditional, or, without much fuss hollow wooden spars can be made. Alternately, as with the gaff rig, the junk rig can take excellent advantage of welded aluminum tube or pipe for spars. When painted properly the aluminum spars are nearly indistinguishable from traditional round wooden spars. Compared strictly on a strength to weight basis, aluminum spars are much better. When compared on the basis of maintenance, the aluminum spars win again. In terms of longevity... aluminum is far and away the best choice. In terms of first cost (the cost to fabricate the rig), again aluminum wins hands down - all fittings being fully welded and therefore integrally a part of the spars.

 

Standing Rigging:

Most often, there are shrouds and stays to support the mast, as in the design shown above. However… the junk rig gains a terrific benefit from free standing spars, as can be seen in the Jasmine sail plan shown here. The reason for this is to simplify; to eliminate or greatly reduce chafe; and to allow the sails to have a much greater range of trim - highly useful for running downwind when the sails can be set at nearly 90 degrees to the centerline.

 

Battens:

Many types of battens have been tried, varying from the obvious use of wood (easy to make but somewhat heavy for the required stiffness), to the use of ABS pipe (cheap but brittle when cold and limp when hot), to the use of fiberglass rods or bars (strong but somewhat heavy for the stiffness, and fairly expensive). Each material has an advantage and a disadvantage. Although fiberglass battens are a bit heavier and more costly, they will usually outlast the others listed by a substantial margin. Bamboo though is likely to be the ideal for battens: light, flexible, strong, relatively unaffected by heat or cold, inexpensive… and - big surprise - it is the preferred traditional material aboard Chinese junks. Excellent stuff!

 

Running Rigging:

The junk rig is friendly to use. For example, just as with a traditional gaff rig, one will be handling soft Dacron lines and multi-part tackles rather than harsh stainless wire and mechanical winches.

 

Proportion:

The drawing shown below is very generic, and is intended only as a schematic to illustrate the approximate layout of a four batten junk (upper yard and boom not included in the batten count). In most applications, and especially for the optimum windward performance, the sail's proportions would be stretched in order to be somewhat taller and less wide. In other words, the rig would ideally have a somewhat higher aspect ratio….

 

A Few New Terms…

 

A minor advantage of familiarity with the junk rig is being able to impress dock side wags by knowing all about lizards, sheetlets, euphroes, snotters, and bowsing tackles....!

 

Sail shape is controlled by each of the individual sheets. Each "sheetlet" runs through a "euphroe" which acts as friction block to keep the tension set as intended. In the drawing above, I've made use of a simpler arrangement using a fiddle block and separate "lizard" eyes in order to allow the sail to self adjust when it is reefed.

 

Once the sail is raised, if it is desired to tension the sail vertically, it is hauled downward by a "bowsing tackle." If it is desired to move the sail forward or aft, it can be done by controlling the "out haul" which in this case leads forward to the leading edge of the battens. The top yard can be controlled via a line called the "snotter" to move the spar forward or aft, or to snug it against the mast, as needed. 

 

A Junk Rig Testimonial…

 

This letter was received from the current owner of Migrant, one of the vessels mentioned above.

 

Dear …,

 

It was nice to come across your piece [above] on the Junk Rig and immediately see Migrant named and another story about Dick Johnson told.

 

I bought Migrant from Dick in 1991 after having sailed on her a number of times since meeting him in 1971 when he first sailed into Bellingham. In 1994, with the same sails that Dick Johnson had used to go to Australia, New Zealand, Pitcairn, Mexico, and back to Bellingham, I sailed Migrant from Bellingham once again, bound for Mexico.

 

I spent a year and a half in Mexico before sailing onward to French Polynesia, Samoa, Tonga, Fiji, the Marshalls, Micronesia, down to the Solomon's, Vanuatu, New Caledonia, and Australia. By then I had put four more years in the tropical sun on the same sail cloth, and it had become very fragile.

 

On the way up the Barrier Reef, the top panel started developing tears. By the time I had crossed the top of Australia and gotten to Ashmore Reef, the top panel was in shreds and only the bolt rope around the perimeter was holding the sail and yard together, yet the sailing performance did not suffer in any noticeable way.

 

By that time the sun damage in the lower panels was severe enough that a careless push with my hand would go right through the sail. Even in bad squalls, the rips did not propagate because of the low stress on the cloth.

 

I continued onward through Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia, and Thailand. I finally replaced the sails in July of 2000 when they became too disreputable looking, even for me...

 

What other rigs exist where a rip in the sail is not of any great concern, or that you would be able to continue onward for that many miles using sails with cloth so old and fragile?

 

NN 

Aboard the junk rigged schooner, Migrant

 

 

In Conclusion

 

There are many excellent resources for more information on the junk rig. Tom Colvin has written many good articles and a few books on the subject, as have Hasler & McLeod, among others.

 

If this kind of wildness is of interest, please inquire.

 

 

and there is nothing – absolutely nothing – half so much worth doing as simply messing about in junk-rigged boats…!