Tiki 21 Junk rig, Leeway, tabernacles etc

[Paul Calvert]

I have a Tiki 21, I built in India and sail here.  Recently made a junk rig for her as the Jeckells sails went walkabout.  Have just posted some pics at this site.

I have some questions.
Even with the original Jeckells wing sail and jib I had quite a struggle to work to windward to keep off a leeshore. The leeway seems quite high.  Choppy seas quickly stop the boat when closehauled and very hard to tack in these conditons.  If one eases the sheets a bit you soon speed up but then you arent making an offing!   I dont think I am sailing the boat wrong, tho open to suggestions.  I have sailed an old Wayfarer all around the inner and outer hebrides and also quite a few 26 - 30' monohulls and they were quite reassurung in similar conditions (especially the wayfarer!)

Has anyone tried a dagger board or leeboard with such success that they would vouch for it being a worthwhile addition?

Does anyone have and windward technique advice and tips to offer?

And - since where I sail now there are quite a few bridges between where the boat lives and the sea I need easy mast lowering and raising that can be performed afloat and preferably alone.  Has anyone any experience of this on T21s? 

I am considering a mast on each hull, in tabernacles, but the devil is in the detail of their design..  and by themselves tabernacles dont solve the problem, it is also how you set it all up !

regards
Paul

[kim whitmyre]

Paul,

Rory McDougall is the man when it comes to the Tiki 21: http://www.roryandcookie.com/.
There are quite a few posts over on the Wharram board by Rory. He is currently busy in England, having shipped Cookie there, getting ready for the 2010 Jester Challenge:Plymouth UK to Newport, RI, USA , starting in May. Unfortunately, that means he has his hands full, and is not posting to the board currently.

Having a junk rig is a whole other issue though; perhaps Bertrand will have something to say about it? For example, here is a clip from a post by Rory to another tiki 21 sailor who was asking about leeway going to windward:

"As far as my Tiki 21, I have a jib just bigger than a working jib size - it overlaps mast by about 1 foot. Therefore I can take the lazy sheet and tighten it from the windward side and it pulls the jib clew closer to centerline like a barberhauler. If you have a bigger overlapping jib, then maybe a handy sized block and tackle with 2 hooks on the ends can be used to hook into jib clew and pull it to windward when you need to???"

So he is closing the slot between jib and main here; can you do that with the junk rig and see what happens?

[Bertrand FERCOT]

Hi Paul

Welcome here and thank you to share your rig experiments.

I think the problem with the Tiki rig is to well control the curve of the main sail. When closing the wind you harden sheets and the sail become more flat and so less powerful and very often due to the too much twist of the sail the bottom is in the boat axis and I even saw on Tikis the bottom sail with a few angle toward the windward!!! In this conditions the global sail force produces a very high leeway force and a very poor driving force. I try to explain that in an article on my own page : "About Sails" (Impossible to create here a link with it !!!)

I think the solution as on Peace4 to have booms is a good way to improve it, but it seems always difficult to well control the sail twist.
I think shrouds limit the efficacy of the junk rig and especially its ability to be reefed at any points of sail._I can't find again the link posted somewhere here of a Tiki38 with 2 masts put on the main beam on each hull and maintained only with brackets fixed on the beam and the hulls!!!
Perhaps it could be a way on your Tiki21 to hold a free mast centered on the boat axis. But for bigger boats, I have more confidence with a mast implanted in each hull or with a tabernacle in each hull to up and down more easily your mast(s)

Regards
Bertrand