Easy one
The reason for rake is to align, as well as you can, the combined CE of the main and jib with the CG in the keel, so that the boat is "balanced", and does not have too much weather helm (CE aft of CG) or lee helm (CE fwd of CG), and maintains a good combination of pointing ability and offwind speed. Since the keel on a given design can be relatively farther forward or aft of that in another, there cannot be a universal amount of rake for all boats.
To take it a step farther, the 30+ is a fractional rig boat-with a much bigger main (relative to the jib) than the 32 (a masthead rig, with a mainsail equal to or smaller than the headsails). This means the 30+ has more sail aft of the CG than the 32 to begin with. So, the more rake you add, the farther aft the CE moves, increasing weather helm, possibly to an excessive degree. That is why on fractional rigged boats you usually see less rake than you will with masthead rigged boats-they have the weather helm "built in" with that big mainsail. Thie exception to this is boats with unusual or incorrect keel placement.
A masthead rigged boat will often have more sail forward of the CG (with a large genoa) than aft of it, and without any rake it may not have enough weather helm to perform well upwind.
The proper amount of rake is determined by the relative locations of the CE in the rig, the CG in the keel, and also how and where weight is stowed on the boat (since this factors as part of the CG), and goal is to find a rake setting that gives the right blend of characteristics or 'feel", so it is easy to steer and has proper upwind and downwind performance. If you sail around with too little rake, your upwind performance will be poor-yet the downwind performance will be great, and vice versa.
Having sail all that, for most cruising boats, the suggested rake settings are only approximate-you may well have to fine tune yours based on how the boat is loaded-and what size genoas you normally carry.
Did that make any sense?:nerd:
Hope so!
Cheers,
S
