I read that you are building yourself some timber Taipan hulls. I was having a discussion with a fellow Aussie who is a T4.9 sailor (who by the way is very keen on the F16HP concept).
We were discussing modifying standard Taipans to take spinnakers. One of the mods required is to drill a hole at the top of each bow to use for a bridle? to hold the spi pole I believe.
This seems a reasonable thing to do on a composite boat however I have some doubt that a timber boat would take the load. There is also the problem of water getting at the raw timber.
How are you tackling this with your hulls and what are your thoughts on this? And the thoughts of the group?
For your interest I have attached a photo that most of you have probably seen before. This is James Sage on his way to winning the 2000 (I think) Australian Cat rig championship. What you may not know is that this is a home built timber boat. Can you tell? I sure can't.
