In the new JRA magazine (#75), Simon Foster describes his experience with a Fan-up preventer to my design. He experienced too much friction from it to make it work properly. I too have experienced this to some degree in my Ingeborg. (See posting 25.July 2017). On the lighter rig of Frøken Sørensen, this was not a problem. I suspect that most of the friction is due to the fact that I passed the FUP line inside the topping lift and sail catchers, so it got squeezed as several panels were dropped. I will now pass the FUP line on the outside of the topping lift and add 2-3 rope hoops under the boom where the line can pass through. This should hopefully help. When I have sorted it out, I shall write a little appendix to the FUP write-up, and let you know.

Arne

About sail trimming. Guilty as charged with a pointy sail!

I trimmed the main on my gaff cutter, slacking off the clew to the give more shape. I also raised the boom using the topping lift to give greater fullness in light winds.

On my Coromandel I slack the LHP when reaching and Drop the halyard till the bottom parrel is held by the lazy-jacks to get a similar effect.

This is only my second season under junk rig so I guess all other Junkies know these things!

By the way, sailing rig stalled gives more heal so a little more length-water-line and increased speed in some hulls with extended bow and or transoms.

Please keep posting ways of sail adjusting, so we new comers can learn

Last thing first, Annie, the wind direction indicator.

I did have something like what you describe at the mast top of Johanna. However, I found that the winds around the head of the sail disturbed it when we were running before (and not wanted to gybe). On Frøken Sørensen, and now, on Ingeborg, I use a yard extension stick to make sure the yard will not fall forward of the topping lift, with only three panels set. Then it has been natural to tie the ribbon to that stick. This ribbon lives in quite free wind so it shows the angle between the wind and sail correctly, both when close-hauled and when running before. What I like with the Windex, is the two vanes, which makes it easier to hit the wanted pointing angle each time I tack.

Pointy rigs.
To me they come in two main categories; with stiff masts and with bendy masts, as seen on fractional rigs. When the fractional rigs came back in fashion, in the late seventies, their owners soon learned to exploit the ability to flatten the mainsail by tensioning the aft stay. Many new gadgets came on the market; better cleats, winches, “muscle boxes” etc. which made accurate adjustment possible. I doubt if the FB had its mast and mainsail that much adjusted in its first years, but when seeing what could be done to the modern boats, they soon found that the rig of the FB was as made for advanced trimming, and that with simple means.

One thing I seriously dislike with contemporary Bermudian rigs is all the friction. Unless well maintained or upgraded, the genoa sheet cars get stuck quite soon. In addition, the practice of running halyards inside the mast, plus the fancy one-line reefing mechanism inside the boom, are all real friction traps.

Less than two weeks ago I crewed on a twenty-one year old Najad 330 around the coast from Kristiansand to Tananger. Despite being a high-quality boat in good conditions, there was a lot of friction everywhere in the rig, even in the roller headsail system. The winches were needed on even ‘light’ jobs. If that Najad were mine, the first job would be to fit a new halyard for the mainsail and run it outside the mast. Same with the reefs; I’d fit ordinary slab reefs.

Finally
This little race was against a well-tuned (if not top-notch) FB. Just as when Edward Hooper races against well-tuned Splinters, one should not expect to win. Still, by disregarding sail area limitations with respect to handicap, as I do, it is possible to achieve about the same elapsed time in a race from A to A as those with BR. That is good enough for me.

Cheers, Arne

Ketil

The whole idea with this test was to compare the rigs, and as much as possible eliminate tactics and changes in wind-strength and -direction. As for Ingeborg’s bigger SA; to my defence; Allan could, and probably did adjust the camber in his big mainsail, something I cannot do. Moreover, the FB didn’t have to sail a straight run, so was saved from falling badly behind us there. I can easily live with up to 5% speed difference to windward. We were fully close-hauled most of the last leg, and Ingeborg only spent 3,6% more time on it than La Barca, so I cannot complain. Whether the beat is two or five miles long, should not make any difference, percent-wise  -  the stern of the faster boat only gets smaller at the end of a longer leg.

None of us have electronics on board to monitor speed through water, or wind data. La Barca has a Windex in the mast top. I consider fitting one as well, as I am not very good at landing on the right pointing angle after each tacking. However, I am quick enough to tack if the wind shifts.

Arne

PS:
Allan went cruising after our test. In the evening I got a text-message, simply saying “40m²!“: He has now got a 23sqm gennaker, which added to his 17sqm mainsail should be...
Let’s hope he doesn’t break another mast.

Thanks Annie.
It was quite a relief to find that my Ingeborg performs at least in the same league as the FB to windward. It both did, and did not surprise me that La Barca did so well on the reach legs. That big, easily tuned mainsail is good, and Allan knows how to use it. (..neither the mainsail nor jib is ever stuffed in bags  -  Allan take the racing sails off and roll them up after each outing...)

I have crewed many times in La Barca on Wednesday races, and I can ensure you that the mainsail’s camber is being adjusted quite frequently. The clew is attached to a runner on the boom, and the clew outhaul is easy to operate  -  just pull a string. Then there is the aft stay tensioner and finally the diamond stay tensioner; a bottle screw on the front of the mast. This last one is generally only set up at rigging the boat, and it limits how much the aft stay can bend the mast. Since there is no time for reefing a sail during a short race, the ability to flatten the mainsail quickly, to depower it, is important.

In addition to this, the Folkboat has a ‘wall-to-wall’ mainsheet track, and as the photos shows, La Barca has quite a bit twist in its mainsail (I bet the mainsheet car has been pulled up to weather when close-hauled.). That twist does not just happen, but is an important part of the tuning of the sail, since the top section has no foresail in front of it.

This sounds complicated, but tuning the sails involves very little sweating, as these controls are quite light.

I still think that the Bermuda rig of the Folkboat is just about the best that has been designed for a little boat. Just look at the simple staying on the second photo of that write-up. The only, small penalty is that the mast section must be about 10% bigger than on similar rigs with lower and upper shrouds.

As for Ingeborg’s performance. I don’t think her extra sail area is of much help to windward. It is the length of the luff and amount (and shape) of the camber which decides the all-important drag angle. However, as the sailing angle to the wind is widened, the extra area pays back, more and more. During this match race, I learned to sheet in the sail harder on the reach, and just let the leech telltales collapse most of the time. On the wind, however, it is still best to have the telltales flying, or just flying, in light winds.

Before I make a new sail, I will hear from a JRA member in Denmark who is rigging his IF to a slightly revised  JR sailplan, with shorter battens and with AR=2.00 (Ingeborg; 1.90). If that turns out to be good, I might make a copy of it, but with 10% camber.

Arne