Best of luck, Scott. Keep us up to date on your progress.
RE your backstay adjuster: you really can't adjust rake with it much, but MAST BEND will be available to flatten the mainsail. Too much bend, however, can get the mast out-of-column and even break it. Don't overdo the mechanical advantage in the system. Those aft lower shrouds can be set to limit the bend to a pre-set amount. If they terminate at the chainplates with the uppers, of course, they will no longer serve this purpose. I would think not much bend would be needed on this boat. If your new forestay attachment point is not near your shroud attachment point, you also get some"iffy" support issues, so I wouldn't overdo the backstay tweaking.
On a masthead boat, the backstay adjuster tightens the forestay - a great advantage to be able to control headstay tension. The fractional rig, particularly the more fractional it is - say 3/4 as opposed to 15/16, will have little tensioning effect.
Hope you have a great time sailing.
Tom
RE your backstay adjuster: you really can't adjust rake with it much, but MAST BEND will be available to flatten the mainsail. Too much bend, however, can get the mast out-of-column and even break it. Don't overdo the mechanical advantage in the system. Those aft lower shrouds can be set to limit the bend to a pre-set amount. If they terminate at the chainplates with the uppers, of course, they will no longer serve this purpose. I would think not much bend would be needed on this boat. If your new forestay attachment point is not near your shroud attachment point, you also get some"iffy" support issues, so I wouldn't overdo the backstay tweaking.
On a masthead boat, the backstay adjuster tightens the forestay - a great advantage to be able to control headstay tension. The fractional rig, particularly the more fractional it is - say 3/4 as opposed to 15/16, will have little tensioning effect.
Hope you have a great time sailing.
Tom
