Thanks for the help Dave. Unfortunately though I am unable to locate your posting on 7-14-00. Could you paste a copy of it in a response to this or my other posting? Thanks for your input. Also I experienced some mast vibration or shudder when the wind hits it just right and while sitting in my slip. I was lucky enough to catch it happening while sighting my mast and it definitely shudders at the spreaders the most. I feel this could be 1 of two problems- 1. The uppers are too tight. (possible but don't think so.) 2. The lowers particularly the forwards are not tight enough. According to my tension gage my forwards are at about 39 and my uppers are at about 42. I had the forwards at 37 but bringing them to 39 seemed to help the mast shudder. I feel like I am over stressing the rig somewhat but the mast shudder may cause more damage. I also have a backstay tensioner which I haven't tried to use yet but if I remember right from last year it would help somewhat to tighten it as well. But I question the use of that as well because it tightens the heck out of my backstay for minimal bend. There is a small improvement in upwind performance though. As far as I know the rigging is original from 1987. Thanks again and happy sailing.