Sorry to take so long to reply to everyone its I excuse really but I was helping deliver this little rocketship back from Gladstone.
Man that photo is caught in upside down world seems like nothing I do will make turn out right side up. HG how do you do it?
Anyway here are some overdue answers with apologies:
Selkie its between 193 and 205 days until departure depending on last minute arrangements etc.
HG you are exactly right its a conventional sail bag inside a mesh base for the lazy jacks. My thinking was that I didn't want something that would hold water in a big sea so the mesh bag attaches to the lazy jacks and the sail bag fits inside. Its not as convenient as a zip up sail bag but it works well for me. I will post some close ups later this week.
Jolene the mast comes out in August and I will install an inner forestay for the storm jib and check stays. I kind of wanted to stay away from running back stays or checkstays under the KISS principle but my rigger (Cookie) who is highly respected is keen for the checkstays. So I will probably go with his advice unless I can convince myself and him that we can do without the checkstays.
The way I see it running back stays or check stays are always vulnerable to an involuntary gybe under self steering. So the extra support they provide is at the cost of an increased risk of a broken boom or even the boom bringing the mast down. I will be using a boom brake so theoretically that should prevent a crash gybe but Murphy's law says that it will fail the one time I need it to work.
Well I still have a few months to make a final decision. Any thoughts?