So I just bought a nice 1983 Hunter 20 for a song. It's my first large sailboat, after building dinghies. However, looking at the mess of standing rigging, and the daunting prospect of raising the mast mostly by myself, is instilling a very strong itch to convert it to a junk rig. I'm sure that itch will only grow every time I have to step the mast, so I might as well give in and start making plans for the winter.

I built a lovely dinghy junk rig a few years ago, so I'm no stranger to the rig and the basic sailing concepts. I also have access to all the cad and cnc machining I need to make things like mounting brackets and the like. I should be able to do everything involved in such a conversion, especially at the sizes needed for this boat. However, my budget is fairly tight, so my projects tend to have a unique contrast of perfect cnc machined parts held together by a redneck assemblage of 2x4s and rebar.

I'm currently making my way through the practical junk rig book, so that should help me figure out the sail and line logistics, but the first (and biggest) design task is picking and sourcing a mast, followed by mounting it.

A quick browse of my local marketplace reveals a few different options. First, there is aluminum irrigation pipe, mostly 6 inch but with some 4 inch diameter available for almost free. This pipe usually has a wall thickness of 0.050", which may be too thin? However there is also someone selling 20 foot sections of stainless steel exhaust pipe at 4in OD x 0.065" wall. 20 feet is too short to make an entire mast, but I can always top it with wood.

The sailboat data site says that the original sail area is around 160 square feet, with a ratio of 19:1. Should I target a similar area? a 16ft x 10ft junk sail would give me an equal area, and would be easy to source a heavy duty tarp of that size to make it all one piece.

Any advice on mast selection would be helpful. I attached pictures of the current mast step, and the structure inside that cabin that appears to transmit some of the mast forces into the swing keel assembly.

Oh, and this is going to be freshwater only on a trailer sailer, so mixing aluminum and stainless isn't nearly as big of a deal.