Hi everybody,
my name is Wolfgang, new to the group. I´m a german sailor living in Florianopolis, South Brazil and very close to purchase the Pocketship plans, but first I´d like to get rid of one major doubt with the help of your swarm intelligence.
What bothers me is the angled forward cabin bulkhead. Looks nice at first sight but carries several disadvantages:
1) The cabin volume is way smaller than with a classic vertical bulkhead.
2) Seems to be impossible to mount a shelf or two for the stuff you want handy while sailing like GPS, charts, a knife etc.
3) Whenever you seek shelter in the cabin during rain you have to close the cabin completly, not just the hatch or it rains straight into the cabin.
I´m quite sure one would not encounter structural problems changing to a vertical bulkhead...just like to be sure and maybe Grandmaster John could say something about this matter.
I´ll try to attach a sketch showing the looks of it. I also attached a second attachment of a different sailplan I sketchupped yesterday night. It shows Pocketship with the original jib, a Goat Island Skiff lugsail and a small mizzen of about two square meter. Reason is, i read a post of Tatoo´s owner telling in a post that it´s difficult to let go of the tiller even for a short time without the boat changing course. Thats exactly the kind of reason why mizzens, also called The poor man´s self steering, exist. It´s not a sail to enhance propulsion, it´s more like an aerodynamic rudder to deliver course stability and easy heaving whenever you have to leave the tiller like reefing the main for example. In strong winds you can put down the mainsail and go on with jib and mizzen. At anchor it will keep the bow into the wind, preventing the boat sailing around the anchor. In my opinion these ara highly desirable features, but again I would welcome your opinions and hope for a lively discussion.
Fair Winds, Wolfgang