A minor update

We went for another sail today after making a few minor changes to the rig (which always seem to take ages and result in tangles). I added small blocks to the bows for the backstays to reduce friction, and stretched the backstay bungies all the way to the opposite bow to take up all the slack. This made shunting a lot easier, as the slack used to get caught around the boom jaws. The bungies still aren't powerful enough to lift the rig when the tack line is released but it's a lot easier than it used to be to pull a backstay to position the mast.

The next step is another length of bungy; the book mentions 3 lengths of 6mm, so I'd hoped that 9mm would be sufficient, but I guess not. We still have to be careful how we handle the sail during a shunt. It's easy to spend too much time getting tangled and not notice the boat spinning into the wind. It's too easy to be standing on the mainsheet, or the wrong side of the tack line and end up in a mess.

Here's another short video of us sailing: https://youtu.be/1nqyQFIQIgI

Meanwhile, I've started building the middle section. It feels much faster than the bow sections. Maybe I'm getting better, maybe it's easier or maybe it's because there's only one of them...