I don't think I would want to climb such a mast but for the size and weight, unstepping might be quite a reasonable way to repair anything at the masthead anyway. Looks great.

David,

that was a fine documentary you have made! Bags of practical details.

As for rudder blade uphaul and downhaul; my last boat with a swing-up rudder had both of these lines terminated to cleats on the tiller. I soon found it was wise to haul the blade fully down and forward to avoid heavy tiller forces.

As can be seen below, I also added a simple weak link of twine to the downhaul line. I never ran aground so the link didn’t break, and it never broke in normal use either, which was good.

Good luck with the test sails, next spring!

Arne

I went to your website to have a look at how you made the sails, just out of idle curiosity - and very soon after that found myself compelled to stop everything and devour the entire blog "Building Minimus ll". It is a well-written and well-illustrated explanation of a number of very interesting design and construction details, all worked out to make the job faster and easier.

Two things especially interest me right now. One is the way you built your masts. I never would have thought multi-skin tube was a DIY proposition - that indeed should interest many JRA members. And your mast-head fittings - that's a new one!

The other thing is the rudders. I would rather like to see a bit more detail on the rudder construction as I think swing-up rudders are a must for shallow draft, but it is difficult to find a simple way of making them strong enough for a boat that size, and I can't quite see how you have done it. Also I am guessing you have made a deliberate decision to use metal fittings (gudgeon and pintle?) rather than lashings. Not having experience with lashings for rudders, I was interested in giving it a try and would be interested in your reasons for not doing so.

Well done and thanks for the link to your most interesting website.