: John,

: If you have not finshed your rudder yet, you may wish to build it to a NACA
: 0012 section, rather than an 0009. You'll find that it stalls less
: frequently, if at all, at the speeds that you will see in your kayak. Less
: stalling and detached flow means better over all control

: Next, your leeboard is just fine the way it is. Angling it back to trim your
: balance is a good solution to a wide possible search for a solution as you
: get to know your boat. You will give away some upwind efficiency with an
: angled board, but will gain that back in adaptability, as well as a nice
: degree of weed shedding.

: I think that you'll find that the jib is not really necessary and potentially
: a hindrance to visibility as well as boat trim (especially when doing
: offwind work) It's tough to achieve good forestay tension with a self
: supported mast and that is one of the real key elements to having any
: solid efficiency from a jib.

: Since you have amas of some buoyancy now, you may find that flying a small
: traction kite in long downwind situations, is actually way more potent
: than the jib could ever hope to provide. If you get the right kite, it
: will pretty much fly itself. If sheeted to the hull at the aka tube
: location, you'll get a small amount of lift in the hull, as well as tug
: through the water. This will reduce wetted surface area and allow the
: kayak to go a bit faster.

: If you fly a kite in medium and up winds, the boat will probably perform
: better with the mainsail dropped (or at least sheeted in) as the apparent
: wind will swing around to create the same effect as sailing upwind.

: You have some real fun times ahead of you, John.

: Any time you'd like to make a trip out west to go on a longer kayak sailing
: adventure, let me know. I'd look forward to your company.

Chris, I always look forward to your advise in what I am trying to do since this is your area of expertise and experience.

Going to an 0012 now wouldn't be good for me now since I have my glued up oak boards planned to the 15/16 inch thickness already for the 0009, and this thickness just fits my aluminum rudder housing already made. If I glued on another three inches to the back end of the rudder and used the 0009 foil shape, would that cause problems or would it kinda of work. To be honest I would like to have more wetted surface that a rudder 12 inches wide would give me with out going any deeper to get more wetted surface. If necessary I could glue thin slats where the thickest area of the rudder would be for 0012 foil. I'm not sure what that size would be right now. Probably just over 1 inch plus.

The blue jib and main will most likely go in the trash but I do want to retry them in the spring to see if my real problem sailing upwind was because of the tiny leeboard and rudder I had and perhaps not the blue sails causing most of the problem. Then I'm almost sure I want to build a poly batwing. If I do I would make it near Balogh's 38 sq. feet batwing, which has a luff of 11 feet and a foot at 4 feet 3 inches. He warns that this is too much sail for most. Do you think it is? I have usually sailed cats in frisky weather for excitement and I wouldn't like to have a ho-mum not enough sail. Even 38 sqft doesn't sound like much sail to me but maybe it's different with the batwing high aspect.

Glad you and Bill Hamm are around so I can pick your brains.

John