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Junk Rig on Old Hull...

Now you have gone and done it... Bitten by the small boat bug--twice! Once to buy the Leisure 17 and the other to want to change it!

Well, to begin with you may want to get the vessel out on the water and give it a thorough shake down to see how it behaves in most of the waters and weather you will be sailing her. In the meantime, the best book I know of on Junk Sails is: "The Chinese Sailing Rig--Designing and Building Your Own" by Derek Van Loan (Epoch Press PO Box 3047 San Rafael CA USA 94912). The graphic above is from page #3 of his book. There is an informative article by Brain Platt "The Chinese Sail" in the Nov. 1 2001 & Nov. 15 2001 issue of 'Messing about in Boats' a magazine published by Mr. Bob Hicks (address on the net). Brian's explanation of the multi sheeting system terminating at the 'euphroe', with associated sheet block, is most enlighting. Another good source for looking at all kinds of sailing rigs is "100 Small Boat Rigs" by Philip C Bolger. As to a Gaff Main, I think it has more complications than the simple Bermuda Main you have now...

Finally, you may be best advised to seek local counsel for a change as large as this to the little boat's sailing dynamics... Personally, I would engineer a bunch of small changes, by degrees, to make the handling of the Bermuda Rig a bit more efficient for a single person. But mainly I would just go and enjoy the sailing fun...!

Hope this is a bit helpful, let us know how the old girl sails!


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