cunningham vs. gooseneck adjustments

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Harold Scharmberg

I recently purchased a 1985 C-25. The mainsail is a slightly used North Sails "Club Racing" main. The sail has a shelf foot. The previous owner had a 4:1 purchase from the bottom of the gooseneck to the plate on the bottom of the mast. He used this instead of the cunningham. Should I continue with this arrangement or keep the gooseneck in a fixed position and use the cunningham along with halyard tension adjustments? My other boats never had a shelf foot main so this is new to me. Any suggestions would be appreciated. Thank You.
 
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Michael McCann

Cuningham

Harold; My previous boat was a 1986 C25. It is a personal thing, I do not like the boom sliding up and down. My main came from Catalina, and had a cuningham cringle, so I locked the boom in place and used the cuningham to tension the luff. You might also check the leach of the sail for a flatening reef point, and rig one that is easy to use. You would then use the cuningham, and the flatening reef for upwind sailing in stronger winds (12-18 kts.) then go to the first reef above that. The cringle for a flatening reef is a few inches above the boom, and is used to remove the foot shelf. Michael
 
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Don Guillette

Cunningham vs gooseneck adjustment

Harold: I would not use that type of a system as it is too complicated. It is similiar to installing a hydraulic system on a flag pole so you could raise and lower the flag by lowering the flag pole into the ground!! My system is to raise the main sail to very, very close to full hoist and then to use my cunningham for final adjustment. Everytime I try to use the main halyard for any adjustment I get too much or too little. The halyard is too hard for me to control but a lot of guys use it. With the cunnigham, you can get minute adjustments and sail trim is sometimes a game of inches.
 
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Hayden Watson

Check the rasing rules

Many racing rules list a maximum hoist length. When the boat is measured a black band is placed on the mast which clearly shows how far down the boom may go. This is to limit the sail area. With this rule you need to use a cunningham to increase luff tension.
 
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