Okay, an update. I've gotten a bit stuck. Probably need to avail myself of a tutorial or something.

(I did do a bit of a tangent exploring Kerkythea and rendering transmapped hair - can be done, but there's a few hoops to jump through - but what an AWESOME renderer!!!!).

When I looked at your .cr2, Les, it all seemed really clear. However, that ...er... fag top and bottom comprise the body, which is the parent for your exercise.

Now, I've imported my little sailboat in bits from Blender, with the Hull being the primary object: ergo, the Parent. All other bits twist and turn and swing and sway along with this parent with the "inherit bends of parent" tick box ticked when you do the "change parent" thing.

Before I started importing any of the bits related to the Hull, I brought the hull into the setup room, then exited, thus creating a figure... right? Is that how it works? or did I miss something? In any event, after that I brought up the .cr2 in my favourite BIG text editor (NotePad++) and changed Figure1_SETUP to Hull... and the .cr2 looks pretty much like I want.

Geez, I wish there were a Kerkythea-like manual for doing this kinda thing! Been looking, but all I find is stuff for Poser 4!

Anyway, imported the other components, like the jib and the rudder/tiller and the rigging and the mainsail/boom/toppinglift assembly... always setting the Hull as parent (with the inheriting box ticked) before I set the joint parameters (where the tiller is meant to swing, or the boom, or whatever...)

What I end up with is a sailboat that pretty-much does what it is meant to. It heels, the boom swings out and the mainsail with it, the tiller/rudder rotate on the y-axis +40 / -40 (so the tiller handle doesn't embed itself into the side of the cockpit... anyway, you get the idea.

What I do have is One Actor called Body, with everything else a prop. Even the hull is a prop.

Perhaps I should stop there. Comparing my .cr2 to svdl's, you've got heaps of actors - no idea how you managed to make all these objects actors! - where I only have props.

I feel like I'm so close, but am missing some crucial info...

...and thank you, both of you, for having an interest in this!

Monterey/Mint21.x/Win10 - Blender3.x - PP11.3(cm) - Musescore3.6.2

Wir sind gewohnt, daß die Menschen verhöhnen was sie nicht verstehen
[it is clear that humans have contempt for that which they do not understand] 

Metaphor of Chooks