Hi all,

Very cool online magazine! here are a few photos of my homemade goodies:

Nothing wrong with that! Have you considered lowering your sail on the mast? The lower it is, the less the boat with heel and the better overall your handling will be. Just lower it to the point where it is just about 18" above your rail. You'll have to duck when the boom swings through, but that's normal for any sail boat.

Thanks Ed,

I'm just waiting for it to warm up a little so I can try it out. I'll definitely try lowering the sail a bit.

Chet

Yeah, Chet, a lot of folks think the boom needs to be above their heads when in reality it spends very little time over the boat, nor should it. Lower it to the point where it will miss you when you duck beneath it. The lower the sail, the lower the 'center of effort' (CE). The lower the CE, the more stable the boat is.

is that good ole blue tarp? Can the rudder pivot be adjusted? I Feel Like you'll want the whole thing wet and then some. Maybe A strategic bend to the shaft. Turnin starboard gonna be a chore. bring or maybe link another 'rudder'. I put one centered 3ft rudder on my canoemaran
and I gotta be cookin to come about without persuasion.

Yep...Blue Poly tarp, constructed with curved leach and luff, which creates a decent shape when the straight spars inserted into the sleeves.

In the picture I show one steering oar, but have also sailed with one on each side...still not ideal. I ended up building a a pivoting rudder controlled by lines lead foreward to bungee cords (ala Rudder Like Butter).

It works pretty good, but I may need a slightly larger surface area to the Rudder. Still tweaking things, and I hope to post results soon!

Picture of my new rudder:

[img size=150][/img]