Mast Rake
Your posting has been on the web for some time. Tried to answer it earlier but was not able to finish the reply. It has been my experience that mast rake does not improve pointing with a mono hull. If it were a Hobie 16 it would be a diffent story. All mast rake does is load up the rudder and keel and cause more drag. When I first started sailing my HL 35 I noticed that I had a lot of weather helm. Called the factory and was told that the rake measurement on a plumb line from the top of the mast was 10" measured on the top of the boom. That is, the plumb would touch the boom 10" aft of the mast: measured from the mast at the goose neck attachment aft on the top of the boom. My mast is 50' high when measured from the deck. Yours may be a bit shorter and your plumb will no doubt be a bit shorter. When I measured my plumb it was indeed greater that the 10" factory setting. As to pointing the boat, if you have a bulb keel accept the fact that you will not point as high as a full keel. What we try and do with my HL 35, in addition to the sail set, is to decrease the weather helm by moving the traveler and the genoa blocks. Right now I am in the process of tuning the rig for "tight-ness". That is, there is an optium amount of slack for the lee shrouds so as to reduce the actual sidward "lean" of the mast on a point or reach. My lee shrouds are too loose. How much it too loose, that is what I am trying to find out. In closing, do not confuse mast rake with mast prebend that is induced by the back stays. Mast rake is controled by the head stay. Rake and prebend are not the same thing They are employed for very different reasons. Sail on Bob Dean
