JUNK RIG: THE VERDICT

Junk rig, as most Western boats use it today, was popularised by Blondie Hasler when he adapted it specifically for short-handed offshore sailing. He tested it in earnest in the first OSTAR on his much-modified Folkboat Jester. With a friend, Jock McLeod, he continued developing and refining the rig, and their joint efforts were consolidated in the book, Practical Junk Rig, the bible for those designing their own rig.

It is a mystery to those of us who sail it why more people don’t have junk rig. Sailors, however, are notoriously conservative and tend to be influenced by racing boats. The rig that will win a race around a course is not necessarily the one that will look after its crew on a voyage to Greenland. Having had the good fortune to voyage to Greenland (and many other places) under junk rig, I knew that if I wanted to cruise happily again, I had to replace my complex and awkward Bermudian rig with the simplicity of junk.

Some years ago, the Junk Rig Association had a forum on the pros and cons of junk rig. It got to over 50 advantages and about three possible disadvantages. The advantages include, in no particular order, ease of reefing and making sail; ease of sailing downwind; manoeuvrability in confined places; increased crew safety (no need to leave the cockpit); an unimpeded view; low cost; ease of repair; better performance in squally conditions; suitability for family sailing and for those with disabilities; ease of making your own sail(s); no sails in the boat; self tacking; ideal for motor sailing – the list goes on and on. Against? It looks ‘strange’, it won’t win races around the cans, and you have to put up with endless questions about it!