How many people do you need to sail a junk?

Question

I wonder why are they called like this. anyway these are asian ships, very beautiful and you can find them in hong kong quite often.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/ca/-HK_CityHall_Seaview_51217_5.png

so how many people are required to sail something like this?

Answer 1

Hong,  a junk like this needs a crew of at least 2, but most have 3 or 4, including a cook.

The drawback in this type of boat is that they will not sail anywhere but down-wind, almost. This restricts the course they can steer, and can make it difficult to make voyages readily. Most of Asia has winds that blow almost continually in one direction for long periods of time. If you can only go one way, it may take a long time to make a round trip. This is simplified, but that is the way it is.

Regards,

Dan

Answer 2

Junk style rigging is very easy to operate compared to others.  You dont have to have the chinese style boat to have a junk rig. I know a few people that use it because they can do it by themselves.