On this forum a link was recently posted to SimpleSailor. I've read that Junk rigs are easy to reef and there are some similarities to the balanced lug. Is their such a thing as a balanced lug junk rig?

The two rigs are similar in some ways and the lug sail is not difficult to reef. What do yo hope to gain from a switch to the Junk rig?

Haven't bought a sail yet, so wasn't doing any switching. I just wondered since these had worked for the Chinese for a few thousand years, they might be on to something. —John

The battens in junk rigs make for more weight aloft and generally interfere with ideal foil shapes for going to windward. Some modern junk rigs have tried to address this problem by placement of baggie areas between battens but with only limited success. The battens do make the sails quieter and more controllable when using cheap, flat sail materials. They also make it easy to reef because the battens can be made to fall into lazy jacks in a very controlled manner but you have to realize the reason for this is the weight of the battens – weight aloft hurts performance. With a normal junk rig you will be giving up the windward ability and sweet simplicity of the lug, but yeah, reefing can be very easy with a junk rig.

This drawing was produced some time ago, junk rigged SCAMP

Brian