Very beautiful Geoff.
Some comments, based on my RC experience with "Aldebaran" (fore&main topsail schooner, 24"hull, based on 1830's "Dos Amigos" in Chapelle's "The history of American sailing ships"):
1. I prefer long&shallow rudders to thin&deep rudders. While the deep are more hydrodynamically efficient, they don't work as well as a long rudder for sculling. Sometimes a good scull or 2 will complete a maneuver. If you want to add rudder area to the aft edge of your existing one, an attachment of clear plastic cut from a "blister pack" works very well. It will be invisible in the water.
2. Wearing is a maneuver that's hard to complete if your backstays prohibit the main boom from swinging out for the run. Ideally, you'd let it out to perpendicular to the hull prior to initiating the wear. My backstays won't allow that. When I have the squares set, I can wear, using them to assist the turn (squares are so useful in maneuvering, I can see why they persisted at sea for so long). But when I am sailing w/o squares, my wears are very iffy, and often fail. You may be able to wear more easily than me, though, due to your boomed foresail; wing out the sail before starting the wear. Aldebaran flys a boomless foresail, and that hurts the wear (they'd probably have clewed-up the foresail before wearing, if sailing w/o squares set...too bad we don't have miniature sailors
.
Looking forward to photos and videos of your beautiful fishing schooner on the pond