After a few more launches, I'd had it with the sprit rig. With the sail laced to the mast, the only way to reduce sail is to douse it by brailing, which causes lots of flapping and drag, and the brailing line gets fouled in various ways. Bringing down the sail means striking down the mast. The sprit is hard to tension properly (seems that I hung the snotter too high). But the worst problem is the difficulty of controlling the sail's shape without a boom, which makes tacking difficult, and the traveler I had to rig up for the mainsheet interferes with tiller and outboard. Adding a boom would solve some of these problems but would increase rig complexity.
So I thought about it and decided that a new rig would be a good idea, which suits my tinkerer's heart nicely (this will be the sixth rig for three boats). I had some good experiences with a standing lug rig with a sprit boom, if we discount the disaster involving the flimsy foremast of my cat ketch breaking in a stiff wind. Since the current mast is robust enough at a diameter of 75 mm (3 inches), I can concentrate on the pluses of the rig. Only three control lines (halyard, snotter, sheet), same as the sprit rig. Reefable and easier to deploy, not to mention take down. A sprit boom doesn't hit you on the head, needs no boom vang or gooseneck/jaws. And no fancy sheeting system is needed.
I took to pencil and paper and designed a new sail of roughly the same trapezoidal shape, but will need some cloth removed and some added to the existing one. There will be a small addition of square footage (up to about 112 square feet or 10.4 square meters) and the center of effort (COE) will be almost the same. My inspiration once again is John Welsford's Houdini and David Nichols' book on traditional sails for small boats. Regarding spars, I am simply shortening the existing sprit into the new boom, and making a very plain yard out of stock lumber.
I also decided to follow kind advice from the Wooden Boat Forum about the tiller. Between the sheet and the outboard, the existing tiller gets in the way. So I am replacing it with a Norwegian tiller, which runs at a right angle to the rudder, parallel withe the transom, and is controlled by a long pole with push-pull action. This will allow me to sit wherever I need to in the boat, and to use a simple 2:1 sheet tackle attached to the center of the transom top. The wood was cut to rough size and planed before I left; I will shape it and cut the mortises (one in the top of the rudder, one in the tiller's tenon for a wedge to keep it in place) when I get back to Greece.
I folded the sail into my carry-on bag and brought it back to California. I had plenty of leftover sailcloth but needed more luff tape and grommets. I also bought a sailmaker's palm for hand stitching but have not needed it yet. I was reminded that sewing a sail with a regular sewing machine is doable if a bit of a pain, and it's not worth my while to invest in anything more than heavy duty needles. The reconfigured sail is now (November 11) ready for next spring (the pandemic permitting). I will update readers with photos then.
