The first hoist...

Now that I have all the standing and running rigging set, and the square sail fabricated, it is time to raise the sail and see if the yard-spar, crossjacks, retention loop, running backstay, braces, sheets, foreguys, etc. all work together the way I envisioned.  I thought through the rigging procedure and made a draft in the design document, which you can find HERE

Following my draft procedure, I started rigging the square sail and got to the place where I thought the sail was ready to be hoisted:

Now, the moment of truth...I started hauling on the halyard, and...oops...the sheets need to go outside ALL of the lifelines before running to the jib car.  Okay, lower back down to the stowed position and reroute the sheets.  Second attempt:  Success!

Everything worked the way I imagined it would.  I was able to control the yard-spar with the braces and swing it around the mast to capture the wind at more downwind angles; control the foot of the sail with the sheets; control the crossjacks (whisker poles) with the foreguys and collapse the sail to depower it when needed.  Of course, this was done in the boat slip with very little wind; the true test will be the first sea trial because problems always arise once you’re out on the water!