Why I Love Junk Rig

SLACKTIDE
(with Flat-Cut Sails)

The junk rig or "Chinese lug rig" is easy to handle, very easy to reef, easy and inexpensive to build, easy to rig, has no complex hardware, requires no winches, is easy to maintain, involves very low rigging stresses, provides a low center of effort so requires less beam or depth of keel, and at least in my view, looks great!

-- Michael Kasten

Why We Love Junk Rig

The wind is up. Sail, too, but can be reefed in seconds. Sitting quietly, doing nothing, the boat sails itself. Almost.

JR looks complicated due to a lot of lines running every which way. But stress is dissipated wonderfully across the entire rig. JR sails were once made of woven grass mats! Masts are commonly free-standing and made of mere wood! In a day of high modulus ploycarbon sail cloth and rod stayed, aluminum alloy masts, this is barely conceivable.

Yet Junk Rig has been keeping the sea for thousands of years.

A Quick Run-Through

JR is a fully battened, standing lug rig (the sail is set on one side of the mast only).

• A halyard raises and lowers the yard and attached sail.
• Sheets attach along the leech end of a boom relatively heavy, full length battens with multiple part purchase.
• Topping lifts act as lazy jacks to gather the reefed sail.
• Parrels (lines from batten - around mast - back to batten) keep battens close to the mast and may adjust batten / sail set.
• Downhauls pull the sails down in any weather.

This arrangement allows control of the shape of the leech (and therefore sail draft) and avoids tack and clew downhauls and reefing nettles. Sheets control the sail as it is reefed to any point. To reef, merely lower the sail to the desired point (sheets go slack), make fast and trim in.

There are a slew of possible refinements, each of which adds efficiency at the cost of greater complexity, but that's a deep dive.

Now, despite anecdotal evidence from the East, where working Junks with tired sails have been observed to smoke Western racer-cruisers, JR has a bad rep, especially to windward.

JR, we believe, had been somewhat lost in translation but is lately beginning to correct.

In brief, Asians used stretchy cotton (vs. hi-modulus, low stretch synthetics).  Geometries that made the most of that ‘shaping’ (vs. those promoting docility). Controlled sail set for conditions (vs. elimination of twist). Each of these western approaches degrade performance, especially when sailing to windward.

Our Junk Rigs

So what do we do? Anke and I dumb ours down, of course.

• Parallel, uniform battens for easy handling (trade away efficiency for docility).
• Sheet and halyard are the only running lines, all others are standing.
• Multiple sails allow us to adjust sail balance without extra control lines.
• Continuous running sheets (5 and 6 part) are simple haul / ease, and mechanically advantageous to handle (no expensive winches), but give up fine control of leech shape.
• Substantial battens drop the sails without downhauls (we do have to round up, a bit, to drop sail in high gale conditions, with sail between wind and mast and clip on downhauls in for gale+ conditions). 

We thus keep line handling to a bare minimum.

Our sails are low-stretch and flat-cut, both performance reducers. The trick is to encourage twist (contrary to western practice) and so induce horizontal camber across the upwardly canted battens. We have surprised many lightly laden cruiser-racers, matching them tack on tack into the wind. We're not the fastest on the water, by any means, but make our way reliably.

A word on our unusual upper panel shape... it's essentially a flat cut Polynesian Crab Claw. When deep reefed, it retains great shape and drive, but can be flattened to reduce power in high winds. The deep hollow leech brings the CE inboard for reduced weather helm (eliminating sail centering lines). It was an experiment that worked out.

Variants of this dumbed-down Junk Rig have carried us safely across a very wide variety of conditions for almost 30 years, now.

Summary of JR advantages (Robust, Fail-Safer, Simple, Easy, Cheap)

• Robust (distributed stresses reduce likelihood of gear failure).

• Low Center of Effort (quad sails spread wide and low).

• Light booms (reduce danger of concussion). 

• Jibes all standing with no problem.

• Sails entirely handled from the cockpit via sheet and halyard (great short- or single-hander rig).

• Quick reefing (Let go halyard! BAM, BAM, BAM! Make fast! Trim Sheets! Done in 5 to 10 seconds!).

• No tack or clew downhauls or reef nettles (NO lurching about, wrestling bunts, tying nettles overhead).

• Sail weathercocks without flogging (tamed by battens in all weather... easier on sail and nerves).

• Can reef upward (raising booms for visibility, deck loads, tarps, laundry, etc.).

• Can set masts free-standing, in tabernacles (for easy dropping / maintenance).

• Lightly stayed, if at all (cheap, low windage, little to no 'shrieking rigging').

• May spread more sail area (easy to handle, so may design ~10% more).

• Few to no sail changes (all area in working set).

• Can climb battens like ratlines.

• Inexpensive to build and maintain (simple components, DIY sails).

Y'know... we’re not fanatic about JR, but we are big fans. As a cruising rig for wild waters and a shoestring boat - the only kind we'll likely ever own…

Junk Rig keeps wooing us back.

NOTE: For details, history, innovation and vigorous debate, please visit the JRA (Junk Rig Association) for a trove of hard-won knowledge. Join for full access to all resources.