Adjustable backstay for a 355?

[TommmD]

Anyone have an adjustable backstay? Is it worth it on a fractional rig?

I'm still sorting out rig tension, adjusting from the forestay is a little new, esp given the ease of getting to the turnbuckle inside the hidden furler. Love to have a conversation with the designer of this system to learn what I'm missing.

Trying to justify adding it. When I first got the boat this was going to be one of my first upgrades but now its making less & less sense.

Hoping to get some thoughts from someone whos lived with one. I'm missing just being able to lean over & pump the hydraulic going upwind. I was just going to add a block @ the backstay split & 8:1 on the one side.

 

[ben solomon]

I have seen a similar thread. Try searching the archived threads. As I recall, because the mast is already bent with the fractional rig, the backstay tensioner made only a very small contribution to performance. I don't have one on my legend 37.5.

Ben

 

[Steve Lavigne]

I have an adjustable backstay and also have a jumper strut on my '92 35.5. It is used for depowering the main and really has no effect on forestay tension (believe me, I tried). My boat has toggles installed on the mast at a similar height to the forestay which was ran with lines to blocks attached to large plates screwed to the stern outside of the backstay attachment points. At some point a previous owner removed the lines for the running backstays. This is what you need if you want to be able to tweak forestay tension. I have been considering adding them back since it would be nice to have this adjustment available. A rigger suggested I could run these to the mast or the shrouds when they weren't being used so that the back of the boat wouldn't be too busy.