Here are a couple of photos of my junk rigged dinghy:

The dinghy was originally lug rigged with a rudder that only just touched the water. Even with a new rudder the lug rig was stressful to sail due to the heavy yard and boom swinging around, and the flat-cut lug sail struggled to go upwind.

The junk rig makes the dinghy very easy and relaxed to sail. If you see a gust coming you can reef instantly. Gybes and tacks are easy. The cambered sail goes upwind very nicely. With its large area high-up and ability to put that area across the boat it goes off the wind very well.

I designed the rig based on articles by Arne Kverneland on the Junk Rigged Association website. The mast is an old aluminium windsurfer mast (very lightweight but a bit flexible); yard and batterns are aluminium tube. Sail is made from lightweight polyester – basically tent fabric – with battern pockets from some green acrylic canvas that I had from another project. The sail construction was easy but fiddly – there are a lot of parts to join together.

The sail is rather long from front to back giving a low aspect ratio. This was forced by the existing mast position in the boat – far forwards – and the centreboard position which is a bit far aft. Aesthetically the sail would be better with an extra panel to make it taller. However in practice she sails beautifully!