I have read several post in the archives on rig tuning the hunter 23. They talk about mast rake. But I'm not clear if the rake is to be towards the bow or stern. Can someone clear this up for me.
Mike
Mike
Mast rake for Hunter 23
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Mike,
Rake is always toward the stern. Hang a heavy tool on the main halyard as a plumb bob and measure the distance it hangs away from the the mast as compared to the distance from the mast the halyard exits at the top. I don't know what the spec is for your boat but I guess the difference should be two to four inches. More rake = more weatherhelm ; less rake= more leehelm.
Rake is always toward the stern. Hang a heavy tool on the main halyard as a plumb bob and measure the distance it hangs away from the the mast as compared to the distance from the mast the halyard exits at the top. I don't know what the spec is for your boat but I guess the difference should be two to four inches. More rake = more weatherhelm ; less rake= more leehelm.
mast rake on H23
If you can find the archive section, there is a lot of information on Mast Rake on the H23. Unfortunately some of it is farily mis leading. I only know about my version of the H23. It has a bendy Z spar mast that has some mast bend built right into the mast. With the side shrouds tuned so that the top of the mast is in the middle of the boat, I hang a weight from the main halyard and measure how far from the back of the mast it would be when the line touches the deck right behind the mast. With no bend in the mast beyond the natural bend in the z-spar mast, it will be idealy about 4" behind the mast. When you add mast bend on this very bendy mast, you could move this distance a lot more. On my boat, the back stay always pulled back on the mast and I could never get the rake to less than 6". I solved this problem by adding two short extensions where the back stay attaches at the stern of the boat. This allowed me to put slack in the back stay so that I could adjust the rake down to 4". This backstay problem may not apply to you because the PO of my boat did a lot of things that may not have been ideal. Having said that, I am told that when you want to race the boat, and it can be a good racer, then more rake is better than less. This does make more weather helm, but that may be OK when you are trying to go as fast as possible. I believe it means you can put up a bigger headsail. Many will argue about this last point, and I am not yet an expert on going as fast as possible. For me, the target mast rake, with no additonal mast bend is 4". Good sailing.
Bill Leathen
If you can find the archive section, there is a lot of information on Mast Rake on the H23. Unfortunately some of it is farily mis leading. I only know about my version of the H23. It has a bendy Z spar mast that has some mast bend built right into the mast. With the side shrouds tuned so that the top of the mast is in the middle of the boat, I hang a weight from the main halyard and measure how far from the back of the mast it would be when the line touches the deck right behind the mast. With no bend in the mast beyond the natural bend in the z-spar mast, it will be idealy about 4" behind the mast. When you add mast bend on this very bendy mast, you could move this distance a lot more. On my boat, the back stay always pulled back on the mast and I could never get the rake to less than 6". I solved this problem by adding two short extensions where the back stay attaches at the stern of the boat. This allowed me to put slack in the back stay so that I could adjust the rake down to 4". This backstay problem may not apply to you because the PO of my boat did a lot of things that may not have been ideal. Having said that, I am told that when you want to race the boat, and it can be a good racer, then more rake is better than less. This does make more weather helm, but that may be OK when you are trying to go as fast as possible. I believe it means you can put up a bigger headsail. Many will argue about this last point, and I am not yet an expert on going as fast as possible. For me, the target mast rake, with no additonal mast bend is 4". Good sailing.
Bill Leathen
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