I have always tried to make any welds / connections of materials as simple as possible as if its going to break this is where its going to happen or just near the weld.
If you have a look at the landyacht register "Wildfire" was made with aluminium scaff tube and clamps, there were no holes through the tube to weaken it at all.
This was based on the Faze5 design.
Just a thought for your rig have you thought of roller furling to add some level of safety in bad winds? as the sail could be rolled up in seconds.
this is a link you might like.. http://www.hobiecat.com/sailing/sail_bravo.html

gidday blokes,
I have about 18 photos to load , concerning construction of my new phase machine, I,m having trouble doing this but wont give up, then ill ask an expert HOW is terminology "rig"-everything or "rig"-sails,mast and ropes. Will do big post later tonight off to the quack soon now Note Lake Lefroy, do you know of Australian motorcycle speed records set there early 1900's for up to 5 mile have info on these also , very interesting standing 1 mile , flying 1mile

There were several motorcycle speed records broken on Lefroy around about 1971,
Les Sharp had his twin engined (2motor in line)triumph drag bike on the lake along with various other machines. The event lasted a few days, a lot of us went out to watch. I was into motorcycle racing then.

Brian Hindle also beat Giacomo Agostini in 1970-71?? at Oran Park Sydney. This was in the 350 class. The occasion was Agostini's Moto GP Promotional Tour of Australia.

However in the open class in which Ago rode the MV Augusta 500cc, there was only one person who could come near him. This was Geoff (Dickhead) Lucas aboard a BSA 750 Rocket 3. Apart from blue printing the only mods to the engine were a 1mm overbore and a mild cam timing change.

This bike had been doing 176mph down the straight with the front wheel lifting during practice.

Ago could see the talent of Lucas and hung back to see what he could do, but when Lucas dropped out due to tyre failure, he just opened the MV up and lapped the rest of the field at least once.

The MV had this huge diameter, 4 leading shoe front drum brake and the spokes could only have been 2 inches long at most.

We were at the top elbow at the start of the straight and watching Ago, could see theat he had exactly the same line coming through the esses before the elbow. There was a small repair patch in the tarmac which he went over each lap under heavy braking. As he did this a small puff of smoke would come off the tyre. Awesome stuff.

After the elbow he opened it up for the straight and we copped the full blast of the MV's exhaust. Spine shuddering to say the least. Even though it had seperate exhausts for each pot, it sounded more like a jet engine than anything else.

Of course a 3 cylinder 4 stroke will be better balanced and smoother than a 2 or 4 cylinder 4 stroke any day. Cheers Cisco BTW, Was anybody else there that day. Vic??

Aha, So you are saying you were there that day?? Unreal. The slender threads that connect people.

My memory of the day is as vivid as what I described in my previous post. I seem to recall some other races earlier in the day. I also seem to recall that Hindle dropped his bike in one race, then picked it up and rode on to complete the race. I think that might have been in the 250 class though. Cheers Cisco