Stephen Newbold’s outboard mizzen is interesting but I think it was designed for running downwind, at any other point of sail I would expect it to upset the balance. I always think something is wrong if more than a finger is necessary on the tiller and with 37 sq. ft. of sail aft of the transom my tiller would be heavy.

In the twenty five years I have sailed my old yawl I have changed most of the rig except the mizzen which makes Jady Lane pretty and is good fun. It stands 18 inches in from the stern, has a boom and a short bumkin. I see no point in free footed mizzen sails because a mizzen boom causes no problems and avoids a long bumkin. My tiller is a steel tube bent to miss the mizzen mast.

Because the mizzen is inboard, the clew of my biggest main sail — I carry two — is about 30 inches from the transom and this enables the main to be boomless and sheeted to one of the outside corners of the transom. I use a twin main sheet just like a conventional jib sheet.

To sail a small boat without a mainsheet boom is a joy and is the only real advantage of a mizzen on a dinghy.

When choosing a cruising dinghy rig, keep it simple, throw away superfluous things like sail battens and remember since those lovely looking gaff rigs were popular, it has been shown that Bermudan is the rig that gets to windward and that’s the only thing that matters.

My favourite downwind rig in light air was my two mainsails both on the mast and goosewinged but now I have a crew I use a spinnaker, it folds up as small as a woollen hat and takes me downwind better than my old gaff did before I threw it away.

Anyone interested in my rig, where all sheets are belayed and crew sit inside the boat, should spend a day in Fowey when I would be pleased to demonstrate the slow but so comfortable Jady Lane.

P.S. the “Wayfarer with a mizzen” is in the Solent and it’s Jim Smith whose kettle is “always on”. John Deacon