junk rig

Anatomy of the Jonquinette rigging:

Junk rig handling:

live your dreams ...


The symbols from left to right:
to take a stroll, boat/junk,
to inhabit, house

There is really only one question: why bambous and masts leaning the 'wrong' way?

As often is the case, the answer is simple: in ancient times, the Chinese who were nevertheless great inventors, did not have fabrics strong enough to make sails; at other times, the use of fabrics was forbidden by local warlords (to avoid perhaps that their citizens might be tempted to see if the grass was greener elsewhere).

There wasn't much left in the back yard except for bamboo which, if intelligently set in the sail, reinforce it dramatically. Faced with this arrangement, the Chinese would easily have figured out how to join these 'booms' with multiple ropes, in order to control the angle of the fall and to reef the sail by hoisting the halyard and without having to tie the ropes, or even change course!

But that's not the end of the story and here is an example of pure Chinese finesse: A sail must not be in the way of tacking. Much later, we invented the foc... the Chinese came up with something better: all that is needed is to place the fore sail well ahead and to slant it forward.

If you let the sail find its place by the natural gravity of its weight (Fig. 1), you have a sail in its 'natural state'. But if you add a tack and tighten it, you pull back the front part of the sail (Fig. 2). In this way, the boat can start tacking; and as soon as the path of the wind is crossed, you can release the tack. The sail finds its natural state by itself and the boat can continue on its new course without additional manoeuvers.

It is worth noting that the bamboo structure (which the Chinese retained even when they possessed the most beautiful fabrics in the world) provides a most effective reinforcement which in turn allows us to use lighter fabrics than would be required for western boats. In fact, the sail area is set at its maximum for light weather since reefing the sail is simply achieved by hauling down the bamboo one by one (Fig. 3).