A Tale of Two Rigs

Let us start right at the beginning....

Boundless started her life as Curly Love, a Van Der Stadt Phoenix with a conventional Bermudian rig. She was built in xxxx and was purchased by Dr Arthur Middleton, a chiropractor, practicing in East London,  in 1993. She was re-registered as Boundless. 

Dr Middleton sailed her with the conventional rig for a few years and then made a radical decision to change to a Chinese lugsail.

Here is an excerpt from Dr Middleton's notes, dated 1996.

"Many people have asked me why I changed a perfectly good Bermudian rig for a Chinese Lugsail. I must admit that it was not an hasty decision. The modification started off as an attempt to reduce the size of the cockpit, some 3.5 metres of dancehall proportions, which prevented below deck access to the aft cabin. 

The process of removing the cockpit didn't phase me until I observed the shoddy workmanship.  The more I cut out, the more I had to cut out, eventually finishing up with just the hulland the fore part of the yacht still in one piece. I wondered what the hell I had done. It was at this stage that consideration was given to an easier handled type of rig. As a major refit was in the offing,it seemed the sensible thing to consider a modification to the rig at the same time.

Every book, article or magazine that compared rigs was read and digested and it eventually came down to two possibilities. (1) The Freedom Rig or (2) The Chinese Lugsail Rig. The cost of the Freedom Rig soon put it out of contention, being 10,000 US Dollars per bare mast. This left the Chinese rig. Many of you will remember Captain Mike Briant, who built a 50ft Ferro Cement Junk  in his back yard in Amalinda, East London, in the early 70's. I kept in contact with him after his move to Cape Town as Fleet Manager of I & J Trawlers. I asked him about the possibility of marrying the Chinese Lugsail rig to the Western hull. He said that it was feasible, but not practical.  Now I had problems. Then, in an English magazine I saw my lifesaving article about "Jester", a junkrigged Folkboat, sailed by Colonel "Blondie" Hasler, (a Cockleshell hero of World War Two),  and his sailing experiences in single handed transatlantic crossings. He also designed a wind vane steering system. He and a Major Jock Mcleod had successfully designed and fitted a Chinese Lugsail to a Western hull.  Boats like Galway Blazer, Ron Glas and many more were being built with very promising results.

Contact with the designer resulted in the delivery of a rather large portfolio on how to design and  build a Chinese rig to fit your own hull. 

 A few years, blood, sweat and tears later and with a completely depleted bank balance, Boundless was relaunched. The rest is history. Her performance far excedes  my expectations and the expectations of a lot of other people, most of whom can now readily recognise a Chinese Lugsail...................... especially from the stern.

With tongue in cheek and a very contented smile".

Arthur Middleton