The Illustrated History of Chinese Junks

[ningpo69]

I second the Yangtze Junk book, it's one of my favorites on the book shelf. What really was an eye opener is the restoration dock in the 1970's, where the dowel makers lived next to the slip ! Tao en the making of the dowl without micrometers , or lathe; yet perfect , each one !

[v10moped]

Are junk boat sails collapsable?

[ningpo69]

@v10moped , yes, that is the marvel. No reefing necessary, they collapse to infinitely adjustable, and the main sheet just pulls in ( it's attached to each out end of the battens via a series of pulleys).....  if the sails get blown out, you can come home on the battens !!!

[CosmasNDamian]

The illustrated history of the Chinese Junks has already been written. The corpus of work by the great C.G Worcester beautifully documents building techniques, hull types, rigs and traditions.

Junks and Sampans of the Yangtze is a wonderful book that I used to restore my own Chinese Junk back in the 70's.