Sqoop: a square-rigged sloop

I took her out again rigged square without the mast retention loop (see previous post); this time with moderate winds and more boats out on the lake.  As I was hoisting the yard-spar, the boat got rolling a bit due to a passing powerboat and the yard-spar really started swinging back and forth. The braces were necessarily slack as I was hauling on the halyard so the dampening effect wasn’t as great as desired.  Once the sail was raised with the halyard cleated off I got back to the helm and tightened the braces, and all was well, but single-handing in these conditions is not ideal.  In the future, I will want another crew member along at the helm to monitor the braces as I hoist the sail.   So, it looks like I’ll have two configuration options: the first, for calmer conditions, will exclude the mast retention loop; the second, for single-handing and/or more challenging conditions, will include the mast retention loop.  [NOTE: this problem was solved by installing 1.25” T-track and ma

...I think!  Took her out again rigged with the square sail, but this time, I left out the mast retention loop which held the yard-spar against the mast with just enough slack to allow the yard-spar to slide up and down the mast.   Mast retention loop installed Mast retention loop uninstalled Removing this from the rigging equation did a number of things: 1) The yard-spar can now be raised above the level of the spreaders (GOOD) 2) The yard-spar can be lowered below the mast-mounted winch, perhaps all the way down to the level of the lifelines.  This will allow the square sail to be rigged and stowed while also allowing the boat to sail fore-and-aft rigged with the genoa powering the boat; tacking is now possible since the sheets will no longer get hung up on the yard-spar during the maneuver.  This will necessitate the installation of additional rings or U-bolts lower down on the mast to store the crossjacks out of the way, but that is certainly doable. (GOOD) 3) The running backstay

I am slowly removing, refinishing and reinstalling all the pieces of wooden brightwork on the boat.  The latest piece was not just a refinish project but also a repair; the hatch cover for the starboard wet locker.  This cover has a fitting for the auto-helm and at some point in the past when it was installed (or reinstalled), the teak hatch cover had cracked completely in two pieces lengthwise.  It was temporarily repaired by screwing in a piece of steel strapping to both pieces on the backside, but it was flimsy and I wanted to do something more permanent.   Once I had sanded, prepped and stained both pieces, I attached them together along the seam with some JB Weld epoxy and after that dried, I laid a piece of biaxial FRP cloth across the seam on the backside and coated the entire piece with West System 105/205 epoxy.  The result was a much sturdier repair. Back view Front view With the hardware installed; you can see the fitting for the autohelm on the right: With fiberglass projec