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I was with my son at the 2nd Yankees Game-just got back last night.
Here is the deal-Yes-adding some rake WILL help your pointing. You do this by easing the HS and taking up the same amount on BS-then check rake by hanging a weight on the main halyard and see how far aft of the center of the mast it is. If you have 4" now and have no probs with WH, then add maybe 3" to start, and see how it goes. Another good way to tell if the rake is in the ballpark is to go sailing in say 5-8 knots of breeze. Trim for upwind sailing (rig reasonably tuned, sails correctly trimmed, and crew and gear weight in reasonable places-NOT excessive bow or stern weight-close to the middle as is reasonable for you).
When the boat is "in the groove", and NOBODY moving around while you do this, let go of the steering thingy. If a tiller, great, if a wheel, make SURE the locks are completely free and there is no tension or friction (or as little as possible). The boat should SLOWLY begin to head up into the wind. If it is blowing about 10, it should head up quicker. If, in anything under about 10, it snaps up right into irons, you have TOO much rake. If it behaves as described, you have it pretty close. If it goes dead straight or bears away, you need to add some rake..Got the idea?
For general rig tuning, set the rake with the headstay length as described, making sure all of the lowers are loose and there is nothing pulling the mast aft-like the topping lift, boom, etc. (best to set the boom on deck), and also that none of the fwd halyards are tight-which would restrict the mast from going back. Set the HS length and snug the BS (if you have an adjuster, set it up so there is about 6-8" of play as you swing it around with zero load on the adjuster. This will allow you to sail in light air wioth lots of sag in the HS, yet remove it as the breeze comes up, and also let you ease the backstay all the way going downwind-reducing helm, and getting the rig forward
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Shrouds-I doubt the 29 has ever really been tuned to this level-so the method is to start with the uppers loose, and to begin with, set the fwd and aft lowers to the mast is dead straight fore and aft where they intesect the mast (no prebend. Make sure you have ZERO reverse bend at this location-if you err on one side, use a small amount of prebend). Tighten the shrouds evenly to keep the mast straight side to side, until there is maybe 1/2-3/4" of play in the uppers, and again sight up the sail track and see that the rig is straight side to side at all shroud intersects, and that the rig either has no prebend or a very small amount (1"), but NO reverse bend.
Go sailing-ideally in about 10-12 knots. All on the water tuning must be done when sailing UPWIND and properly trimmed. When you are in the groove, have the driver bear off about 5 degrees (without easing the genoa or main sheets). This will make the telltales indicate that you either must ease the genoa or head up to get them streaming. Do neither. The point here is to load the boat up as much as possible, and to guarantee the driver won't start pinching (inadvertently, of course
), which will unload the boat, and make rig settings harder to see. The rig should be in column (straight side to side with NO fall off at the top or in the middle of the rig. If you see the middle falling off to leeward, tack, and then while they are not loaded up, you can tighten both lowers equally. Tack back and see if this was enough, etc. If you see the top falling off, tack, and tighten that loose upper while it is not loaded, tack back, retrim and check it out. Once you have the rig straight on both sides, check out the lee shrouds. In 10-12 knots, they should be loose, but not swinging around-about 1" of play is OK. In 15+, you will see maybe up to 2". Any more than that and you should take up on them the same amount on both sides (This was in reference to the uppers and forward lowers-most of the time the aft lowers will be noticelable looser than the others, and that is normal). In under about 6 knots, the lee shrouds should not be moving (but obvioulsy not bone tight). BTW-in 15+ knots and going upwind, even after all this work,you may see a small amount of fall off at the tip of the mast. Don't worry about this as long as you only see it upwind in big air..If you see the middle falling off at any time, you should correct this
Now-back to prebend. You have done all of this tuning-
Sail upwind at the proper angle (but no pinching, and make SURE the genoa lead is in the right spot-this is very important), trim properly and look at the front portion (lower 1/3 primarily)of the main. If you are in 10 knots or less, you should see a fair amount ("normal" amount-whatever that is) of shape in the sail, but not backwinding. If the sail is BOARD flat, ease the fwd lowers a turn and take up the aft lowers the same amount. This will reduce prebend, and add shape to the mainsail in the lower half of the sail. The more likely observation may be that the sail looks too full, is maybe backwinding, etc,. In this case, ADD some prebend, by easing the aft lowers (when not under load, remember? just tack over the make the changes) and taking up on the fwd lowers-until the sail looks better.
If you do this in 12-15 knots-it will be harder to tell and will depend on what adjustments you have available (backstay, etc.), you may see some backwinding even with everything set up right-you will have to evaluate this on how deep or flat the main looks to you. This is why the 8-12 knot range is best for tuning. More than 15 knots, and you can't really tune the thing.
Once you have it dialed in(you should be able to do all this in about an hour to an hour and a half), use tape or some other marking method so you can either duplicate the settings for next year, or use as a reference if you want to get optimal performance in all conditions-you can ease all shrouds in under 6 about 2 turns, and tighten them all(except the aft lowers-leave them the same in heavy air) about 2 turns in over 15 knots. This may not be your style of sailing, but it WILL make a difference in performance!!!
Hope this makes some sense- good luck:nerd: (me)
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