I just noticed the picture that Martin posted is the same as mine. The cut of the sail determines the placing of the boom and as far as I can see short of replacing the sail nothing can be done. I still think it's to do with the sail clearing the safety rails.
The jib can only be installed one way round and it's impossible to get my arm into the bow of the hull to do move anything.
I was wondering what is wrong with using the Futaba M series receiver/servo combination. I bought the set in the late 1960s in a model shop in Abingdon and it's worked fine ever since. I do not intend to spend loads of money just for the sake of it.
I bought new M series cables from
http://store.modelpower.co.uk to make an adapter for the Hitec sail servo and that works fine.
See the picture of my North sea trawler installation. This includes a hombrew PIC ESC that works well.
My Comtesse is finished, all that's needed is courage to sail it for the first time.