Rudder Update (belated)

I'm sorry it has been so long since I've written. I made some HUGE progress on the boat, and even took it out, a couple of months ago. But immediately thereafter we went to Colorado, and then I got back and almost moved to Scotland, and then the opera season started and I just haven't had two minutes to type.

I think the last I posted (in JUNE!) was the sail mockup, with the crossbrace for the mast held on by clamps, and the canvas loosely draped over the spar to give some idea of how it might work.

The following weekend (the July 4 weekend), I bit the bullet and permanently added the mast brace and secured the step of the mast onto the bottom of the boat, using the very last of my fiberglass epoxy.

You'll notice that I also added some half-decking, for and aft, to close the bow and stern of the boat. There was no practical reason to do this (and I've lately found a pretty good reason to have not done this, so those will likely disappear.)

Once I got the mast step locked into place and capable of sustaining load, it was time to rig the sail. For Reals, as the mariners say.

I lashed the sail tightly to the spar with short lengths of cordage.Red arrows indicate the lashing of sail to spar

Having done that, it was merely a matter of laying along the running rigging and hoisting the sail. As you may recall, I spent some time thinking about this in advance, and came up with this plan:
It was merely a matter of putting those plans to practice.

And, voila!:

Here is the halyard, highlighted in blue, to match the drawing:
The idea was to simply pull on the halyards, and up would rise the sail to its yard.
And, you know what?

IT WORKED!
It ultimately takes three sets of ropes to work the sail: The first are the halyards for dropping the sail from the spar (explained and highlighted in blue, above.)

There is also the main halyard to raise the spar itself (and battened sail) from the base of the mast to the top of the mast, highlighted below in red. It is secured to the spar (horizontal pole), run through the center block (pulley) at the top of the mast, and then straight down to the crossbrace and lashed (tied off) at the base when the sail is raised. If you untie this and let it go, the entire sail, spar and all, will drop to the deck.
And finally, there are the sheets, which run from the clews (bottom outer corners of the sail) back to the stern of the vessel (what I will somewhat indulgently call the quarter deck), highlighted below in yellow:
When the sail is lowered and drawing, I simply need pull (or let fly) one or both of those to change the direction and tautness of the sail.

Of course, I have yet to try this in practice. I did take the Ruddy Duck out subsequent to assembling this mast rig, but I had both boys and left the mast at home. So it has yet to be sea tested.

You can see from this illustration, though, that, with everything rigged properly and a breeze from abaft the beam, it should work well.
I am pleased.