The Junk Rig is easy to operate, forgiving, and simple. One of the best qualities is the ease of shortening sail. To shorten sail, all you need to do is uncleat the halyard and drop battens into lazyjacks. This allows one person to sail safely during poor weather. A sudden weather change does not require all hands on deck to shorten sail and does not place crew into an injury prone position. This rig is optimized for tradewind and across the wind sailing. We like other types of sailplans also, each has their purpose.

This sail plan is easier to maintain (than modern rigs) from onboard without needing special equipment. The rig is low-aspect and low-stress, this means we do not need special terminal fittings or certain halyard line types. We can use galvanized wire-rope available at a hardware store and almost any three strand rope. We carry a rigging vise, wire rope, eye fittings, leather, and marlinespike tools which gives us the ability to make replacement rigging onboard. The sail could literally be shredded and will still work, it does not need to go to a sail loft for replacement. There are a great many benefits to this type of rig that outweigh the benefits of standard sailing rigs, for our purposes. 

To learn more about the junk rig follow this link: About The Junk Rig.