Forgot password

Gybing a junk

<< First  < Prev   1   2   3   4   Next >  Last >> 
  • 07 Feb 2013 20:03
    Quote
    Reply # 1201914 on 1201045
    Anonymous member
    Hello,

    To the excellent comments above, I'd add that:

    - If you control a gybe by hauling in and flaking on the cockpit sole, as we do too, be conscious you don't lift a foot.

    - The sheet let too far loose after a gybe is even more interesting on a schooner or ketch, where the tangle of batten ends and lifts, sheets and fabric can take a while to sort out... as you drift, with no way to reduce or control sails. My tree-climbing daughter was indispensable.

    - On our schooner, sailing wing-and-wing on a broad reach is powerful, balanced and fun, in small enough waves. I always favour the fore to be the sail 'by the lee,' because it can gybe harmlessly out there. But, avoiding the great pleasure of sailing wing-and-wing can save you from a lot of gybing, if you don't care for it.

    - The junk's reputation for easy 'feathered' gybing, definitely depends on the sheets' being well-slackened-off beforehand, and also on decisive steering, in our experience. Full sail, least twist, easiest.

    - Finally, if there's ever much question about the wisdom of a gybe, we tack around instead. It's a rough ride sometimes, but it's sure and it's safe. I can concentrate on the steering while the rig looks after itself, especially if we take our time, and sheet in and out properly. It actually shakes a lot of things back into perfect order in the rig, and is worth doing as a normal thing. Besides all that, it's practice for MOB manoeuvres. (There, now I'm a champion for the chicken gybe.)

    And I have a question - Do many of us actually get up and tie our battens together near the leech to prevent the evil fan-up? 

    We never have. And I've rigged the intention for downhauls, but no downhauls. In the conditions where a fan-up would be feared, (for us, the day before yesterday was a case) I'd much rather stay low in the cockpit, than try to keep the reefed bundle within lashing reach while I leave the tiller, stand on the high stern seat or side rail, and end up inviting one disaster in trying to prevent another.

    I don't know. It would seem wise once done, probably, with the wind still rising, but somehow it strikes me as decidedly non-junkish behaviour.

    (At the risk of having another thread created for us: Like many other less-than-pious junk people, we don't have a Jester-like control position - we use the whole cockpit, which requires us to move some. It's quite confined and safe. One big reason we have a junk rig is so that nobody has to go 'out there' at sea, climbing around on trunk cabin and pilothouse to tie reef pendants, for instance.)

    Cheers,
    Kurt

    Last modified: 07 Feb 2013 20:23 | Anonymous member
  • 07 Feb 2013 08:58
    Quote
    Reply # 1201386 on 1201045
    Anonymous member
    It is possible that you did not have the sheet eased out as far as it is safe to do so.  If the sail, or at least the top half is squared off athwarthships, you should not gybe until the wind is well in the lee, so that by the time the sail swings across you are almost beam on (not quite) and the sail then weathercocks.  Once you have straightened your feathers you put the helm up and fall off again.  That can be tricky if trying to gybe in a restricted channel such as the Tweed River, especially if there are other boats about.  A controlled gybe is all you can do then, but as I say, I prefer it anyway unless the wind is 10 knots or less.  One thing I forgot to mention, although I haul the sheet in and flake it on the cockpit sole, I leave the end cleated off so that as the slack runs back out it stops where it should.  If you uncleat it you will need to hang on to it or the whole sail will swing forward of the mast and you will need to round up before you can pull it back in.  I did that once.  No drama really (unless you are about to collide with something) but messy and embarrassing if you have an audience.
  • 07 Feb 2013 03:50
    Quote
    Reply # 1201216 on 1201045
    Anonymous member
    I gybed all standing because I wanted to see what happened. I had read that the sail weathercocked on the way across and that took the force out of it. Okay maybe I read it wrong but it doesn't, my sail went across with some force still in it. My preferred method is to haul in most of the sheet and feed it out when sail has crossed.
  • 06 Feb 2013 23:00
    Quote
    Message # 1201045
    Deleted user
    [Webmaster: Copied from the Gary's 'Redwing' thread.]

    Graham Cox wrote:
     

    Gybing still makes me a little nervous too but I will share my observations with you, Gary.  I square the sail out as much as possible - because of some twist in the leech, the boom does not go out as far as the yard.  I was nervous to let it out too far initially because PJR warns about compression loads on the battens if you go past 90 degrees, but now I keep easing the sheet until the top sheeted batten is fully athwartships, which means the yard is well and truly eased.  This means that the sail wont gybe until you are sailing considerably by the lee and that makes the gybe a little softer.  it also means an accidental gybe while running is unlikely unless there is an extreme and sudden shift in wind angle (which happened to me once under the old rig in the Whitsundays and nearly killed me).  My main problem with gybing the junk sail all standing was that the sheet whipped across and once grabbed my windvane, another time the autopilot, both escaped without serious damage but I was lucky.  It could be my neck next!  So now I do a controlled gybe.  I wear a pair of sailing gloves, hold the tiller with my knees and haul in as much sheet as I can, flaking it down between my feet on the cockpit floor.  Then, as the boom passes over my head, I let the sheet run out through my gloved hands (which stops it getting a wrap around something like the engine gear lever!).  I find this still quite soft, the friction in the sheet running out brakes the boom a little without it slamming and everything seems to be under control.  I have gybed like this in 20 knots several times without mishap.  Once I have two - three panels reefed down the process seems a lot less intimidating, as long as I have a lashing on the leech to stop a fan up.  I reef early when sailing downwind as the sail is so efficient I just do not need to drive the boat as hard as I did under the bermudian rig.  I always drop two panels when off the wind if the wind is 15 knots, three panels if it is 20 knots.  With the wind forward of the beam I can carry full sail in 15 knots, one panel reefed at 20.  I remember Annie Hill saying that junk rig was the opposite in this regard to bermudian (as in so many other ways), in that you had to shake reefs OUT when you came on the wind.
    Last modified: 07 Feb 2013 22:12 | Deleted user
<< First  < Prev   1   2   3   4   Next >  Last >> 
       " ...there is nothing - absolutely nothing - half so much worth doing as simply messing about in junk-rigged boats" 
                                                               - the Chinese Water Rat

                                                              Site contents © the Junk Rig Association and/or individual authors

Powered by Wild Apricot Membership Software