Talk About Just in Time...

The sails arrived from Steve Hall at North Sea Sails just a day before the owner, and the day the spars arrived was the day Mattis and I finished the daggerboard case, and finally hung the rudder and put the final coat of varnish on and, and...

But here she is, rigged and almost ready to launch, had not the heavens opened just at the wrong time. Hopefully (although the forecast is rubbish for Thursday) we'll bend on the sails and slip her into the water tomorrow.

Enough: here are the latest photos showing Mr Jeremy Freeland's spars; Viking Boats' way with rudder gear (34 quid, rather than £80's worth of bronze, of which more later); the rudder and tiller, showing the split tiller (that green string's temporary) and lines to up and downhaul the rudder and some photos showing Jan the owner and Mattis stepping the mast.

Throughout the riggging we tried to eliminate stainless steel and unnecessary boat bling; hence the shrouds have lanyards (albeit Excel V12 racing) led through wooden fairleads. This is in line with current racing practice which aims to eliminate unnecessary shiny bits.

Collars spars arrived the day Jan, her owner, arrived to supervise the rigging.

3Si supplied the 12mm swage rigging fittings, John McIntyre the 12mm stainless bar and tube; and this is how we hang rudders at Viking Boats. Cheap, strong and it works. The flat filed in the bar allows the bottom ring to disengage, then the rudder can be lifted off.

The tiller is formed from two lengths of oak, glued then split, bound at the end. The tiller will articulate up and down and can be drawn in or out if a little more or less length is needed. The lines are for uphaul and downhaul. The green string is temporary...

Stepping the mast. Jan, the owner, and Mattis