Chris,Chris Johnson wrote:Nice work Steve! I'm looking forward to seeing some photos of the boat rigged and on the water. And really looking forward to seeing it in person!
As your occasional crew, I have to admit that I noticed a bit of an omission in your description of the cockpit layout. You mention that it's very clean from 5' forward of the transom aft, but don't say anything about the area from there forward to the mast. Does this mean that there's a 1' wide by 6" high space just off the floor that the crew has to squeeze through in tacks?
Congratulations again on seeing the project through from start to finish and getting it on the water! You have every right in the world to be proud of it!
Just for you, I will stay within the aft 3' or so of the cockpit, leaving 2' of absolutely clean space for you in addition to another 1' to 2' of space littered with stuff like a daggerboard, spin pole and tack line ends, jib cleat, vang, hooks, spikes, and barbed wire. I was going to install some land mines, but I was already way over on my hardware budget.
Also, the boom seems to be a nice height off the deck, and the Trevor Baylis lever vang is pretty onobtrusive. However, I did not get my butt out of the cushy helm position, so we will have to hear from Andy on crew comfort.