Rob,

 

I dropped the bulk of the message, so I could just inquire about this part:

 

Attach the tiller to the  rudder shaft with a horizontal pin running at right angles to the blade, ie athwartships.  This allows the tiller to stay horizontal if the rudder kicks up.  It also allows you to flip the tiller over when steering with both rudders so that the front one is over the tramp and to steer you push or pull both extensions  which is much more intuitive than pulling one and pushing the other.   Means shorter extensions as well.

 

It would seem that mounting the tiller this way would require it to be fixed to the shaft at the top, and with a lifting shaft, your rudder attachment point could be 6' above the crossbeams. I know that bothers me esthetically, but I don't know if there are practical problems with it. The only thing I can think of again relates to what happens when the rudder kicks up. If the shaft kicks 45 degrees and is 6 feet up, that is a LOT of movement.

- Gardner

Only problems I see are aesthetic (still looks better than sitting high and dry on the mud because they could not be lifted) and being hit by the ballestron boom in a shunt.  May need to kick them up to get the boom past.  Not a schooner problem. 

Probably not prudent to be standing under it if you go aground at speed, but it won't do any damage to anything else.  Suggest you draw it raised and see what it looks like kicked up.