Mast Mockup

I went home last night and it was such a beautiful evening that I decided to work on the boat for a little bit. But when I went to get it to bring around to the back yard, I realized that I hadn't mowed the lawn this past weekend because of all of the rain, and, as I always tell the kids, you have to do your chores before you can have fun, so I got out the lawn mower instead.

I started mowing the side yard, when Charlie came up and asked if he could mow the lawn. (Mind you, this is no altruism on his part: it's pure calculated mercenary-ness. He didn't ask to be paid, but he rolled the dice, figuring that if he volunteered and did a great job, there might be some cash for him in the end. And I have to say, he did a really good job. And so there well may be some cash (or prizes) for him in the end. (There's a new gameboy game that he wants, and we'll probably go get it for him this weekend in preparation for the drive to Colorado next week.))

In any event, with my evening freed up from lawn mowing, I was able to re-devote the time to mast stepping.

As foretold, I put the boat on the grass, and clamped in the mast thwart in a couple of different places to see what looked right. (A "thwart" is a horizontal brace in a boat - imagine a canoe seat: a board running across the width of the canoe for the paddler to sit on. A mast thwart is a canoe seat with a hole in it for the mast to go through.)

I tried it all the way up front at the first rib:
Note: to secure the mast in place (when I decide where it's to go), I'm going to attach a mast seat to the deck (floor) of the boat, and also rings around the hole cut in the thwart. For these, I'm going to use closet curtain-rod brackets:
The installed mast looked so good, I decided to mock up the block system and the yard for the sail.

I drilled a hole through the top of the mast, to which I could attach a line onto which the blocks (remember, this is nauticalese for "pulley") could be attached. My plan calls for three masttop blocks: one for the halyard (the rope used to raise the yard (pole) onto which the sail is attached), and two for the sheets (the ropes that actually control the height of the sail itself.) The halyard will use the middle of the three blocks:Note, this is not the final fine work, but it's just roughed out to give a sense.
I then tied the yard to the halyard, and raised it:Viola [sic]. A basic square rig.

I must admit, I was pleased.

Then I used my "eye", and it seemed like that might be a little far forward. With a wind pressing on the sail, it might serve to drive the nose of the boat down into the water and slow it down. So I moved it back to the second rib:

This looks more balanced to me, but I wonder about space for the whole crew with the mast stepped this far back.

So, I split the difference and put it between the two ribs:
To my eye, this looks like about the correct position. I need to figure out exactly how I'm going to affix the thwart to the pirogue. I'm thinking I'll attach short sections of the rub rail oak to the inside of the gunwales, and then screw the thwart onto those. Conceivably, therefore, I could rig the mast and take it out for trials and if it's badly placed, I can just move the thwart brackets forward or back as the need dictates.

We'll see. It's a long way from finished, but it's gratifying to see that the rough ideas I've been sketching in my notebook seem to have some validity.Left, preliminary drawing of the three-block rig.
On the right, a subsequent drawing, with halyard in red and sheets in blue for clarification in my head.
Fred, any thoughts?