Too much mast rake

[Jared1048]

I've got new standing rigging so I've been trying to get the rig tuned but I'm not happy with it yet. I'm trying to get everything to 12-16% breaking strength but its proving difficult.

Currently I have about that but my mast is raked back pretty far. Running the halyard down to the gooseneck and sighting up it looks to be about 9 inch deflection. According to the specs its at the maximum 2%.

I feel that im not getting the power out of my main that I want due to it flatting the sail. I'm having a hard time getting the shape I want.

Anyone have issues like this with your B&R rig? I feel that I need more forestay tension...

-Jared

 

[Allan12210]

Lots of things impact this. First, your mast rake...is the boat absolutely level in the water? Otherwise it will impact what you perceive as rake (the tilt of the mast from top to bottom). As I recall, the specs regarding the 2% measurement refer to prebend which is established by the diamond stays. That prebend is usually adjusted in while the mast is off the boat. Hopefully the sail you have was specifically cut with that in mind. There is where the initial flattening comes from. Rake should not impact flatness.

Regarding the proper tensioning of the shrouds: that for me has always been a empirical approach. Take the boat out in 10 knots of wind and sail close hauled. If the leeward shrouds show slack, then adjust the turnbuckles a turn. Then tack and put the same number of turns on the new leeward side. If still slack, add a turn and tack always making sure the same number of turns was applied to each side.

Tightening the forestay doesn't necessarily move the mast forward. With this rig, you may need to loosen the shrouds and the backstays before tightening the forestay to actually move the head of the mast.

Basically you continue to tweak and tweak before you finally dial it in to your satisfaction. For me, its taken years. I still go back and fiddle with the rigging. I can't always tell if it did any good.

Good luck to you.

Allan

 

[Jared1048]

I'm curious to what the "specs" say the mast rake should be. Lots of people have opinions to how tight the rigging should be and what not but i'm having a hard time finding the factory recommendations. Hunter manual left me with more questions. It was laughably light compared to a car manual which doesn't make sense considering the amount of systems in a boat compared to a car! Im getting off topic though...

Mast is Isomat. 40' If I remember right and 2% max mast rake is something like 9 inch's. I have about that much rake now and it looks excessive. I've backed off my shrouds and lowers which were at about 10-15% breaking strength and it didn't move it back much. Maybe an inch or two. Not as much As I thought.

I need to read more about pre-bend and rake. Riggers did that while the mast was down but my upper diamonds look slack now.



Thanks again for the input guys!