Junk Rigged

Comment by Bertrand FERCOT on October 14, 2008 at 9:43am

We discovered the junk rig in joining rallies of the Junk Rig Association 12 years ago. After to have sailed on board several junk riged monohulls I was convinced it would be the best rig for our next cruising catamaran : very easy to handle even alone, no shrouds, no jib with winches.
After a long search, we bought the plans of the Tiki46 N°2 after a visit to the builders of the Tiki46 N°1 in UK. I contacted and visited Sunbird Marine to decide which type of junk rig will be the best for our Tiki46 and finally I ordered the sail plan of an advanced junk rig with wishbones and double sails : a Swing Wing rig.
We begun the building of our Tiki46 in August 1999, but in March 2001 I left the Brittany to work in Martinique. In Martinique we decided to build quickly in one year a tiki30 to test this rig, but in fact we needed 3 years before her launch.
We have a lot of fun in sailing with a such rig. As the masts are souple, they absorb the gusts and my first suprise was its ability to tack only in pushing the tiller. After a lot of sailing in the Caribbean sea, across the north Atlantic, several crosses to the Chanel towards the Scilly, Plymouth, Southampton, South Brittany in all different conditions of wind and sea , a total of at least 6000NM, I can say this rig works very well on a catamaran. The only problem is in light winds the sail area is not enough. It's why, according our experiences, I asked to increase a little the sail area for our Tiki46.
Since a few months I'm retired and so I hope to finish she in one year and to launch her at the begining of 2010 after to have sold our brave Tiki30.
Here are a few photos of our Tiki30 "PHA" our twin junk rig : Swing wing rig

During the winter I made new wishbones to get a better profile with a deeeper curve. The result is good with more powerfull sails :

And here is a video of PHA sailing during the Brest2008 sea meeting:

Comment by Bertrand FERCOT on September 23, 2010 at 2:19pm

Congratulation Greg, your mods will improve well the offshore ability of your Tiki31 and your twin junk rigs looks beautiful.

Bertrand

Comment by Hans Hammig on February 21, 2011 at 3:44pm

Now I have posted this challenge on the site, but there is no reaction. Well, with only 12 members, with only 6 of them alive, while the others are obviously deceased, nothing than sculls and bones left, I wonder. Is this the survival rate of junk sailors? Did they forget to reef?

Comment by Hector de Ezcurra on February 25, 2011 at 10:17pm

Bertrand: I know it's not a Wharram, but I'm curious: do you think a junk rig can be installed in this boat without puting the mast behind the red line?  (Behind the red line, the forward bunk starts, and I wouldn´t like to spoil that sleeping space.) Besides, on the red line, there is a strong bulkhead that can be used in the structure to hold the mast.

Mercí.

Héctor

Comment by Bertrand FERCOT on February 26, 2011 at 5:39pm

Hector, according the type of junk sail the centre of effort can be very different.

On the Tiki46 Apatiki of our Belgium friends, the masts are at lest 1 m more in the front than mines because they have a more classical junk sail with long battens at the opposite of mine which is taller for the same sail area.

The best is to look on your sail plan the position of the sail center of effort (CE) and to design a junk sail in order to have its CE on the vertical of the previous CE  and according the position of the masts.

I suppose Tom and Susi can help you and you can visit the Junk Rig Association web site : http://www.junkrigassociation.org/

I recommend the book : "Practical Junk Rig , Design Aerodynamics and handling of HG Hasler & JK McLeod.

Good luck

Bertrand

Comment by Paul Calvert on January 18, 2012 at 8:31am

Hello Junk rigged people!

I have just been sailing my Tiki21 again here in India.  I must say it is interesting how much extra power the smaller foresail makes, especially going to windward.  (schooner-rigged, both masts have shrouds/stays as they are standing on the crossbeams).  Ideally I still like to put masts in the hulls, with tabernacles for getting mast down under bridges.  I wish we could hear more about Pete Hill's new catamaran junk.  Also hope that Bretrand is close to completion with his big project!??! Best wishes to you Bertrand!  Regards

Paul

Comment by david duval-hall on May 27, 2012 at 8:13am

hi all, just posted some photos up of our ex pahi 42, the rig really works well, any comments, please feel free, rgds david

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