I has been there since the end of December. You guys must be missing all the upgrades to the site. Go to the molded decking section.

...94

Scott - the kiwi way of us all having the post is probaly due to us constantly sailing in much higher wind ranges where we are less sensitive to leech adjustment during the race and more likely to be adjusting sheeting angle during a gust. Nearly all of us use compression strut vangs which effectively locks the leech.

The post allows the angle changes with no leech change as the sheet pulls almost sideways rather than down.

As Rick, Jack and Jim found out 18 mths ago down here - when it blows, baby it blows [:D]

Most of us down here are still using our A rigs when I believe alot of US guys would be ready to lock up and go home as it is too strong for your C[:p] We regularly sail with A rigs up to gusts of about 15mph before contemplating changing down to B (equiv your C).

We have been discussing just the week some us how we need to do a helluva lot of light airs practice before venturing over your way next year.[;)]

Chris
NZL1 Longtack
NZL110 Swept Away NZL128 Ketch me if U Can

Yachtie,

That makes sense. And I believe that in high wind you really would not care if the leech is getting looser upwind in the puffs. That would help you. You do not want to crank the sheet in tight in high wind, so it would be a good thing to go for more precise control of sheeting angle.

Scott

This subject is interesting to me. I am one of those guy's who likes to sheet vang going upwind. I also do not use a fixed or rigid vang on my boat. I have a compression vang that is spring loaded which allows for normal vang operation for all sheeting angles except when close hauled. The RMG will compress the spring nicly and allow me to easily adjust the main leech.

This being said, there is a thought that a combination of this vang with a shorter sheet post that what is being discussed will allow me to sheet closer to center line and still benefit from the spring loaded vang.

Has anyone experimented with this set up?

Chuck #84

I am going to put this image here since Reichard commented on control of twist and I am sure this is a Reichard built boat if not his boat and without a mainsheet post. I must have found the image somewhere online. The basic idea for relative twist is that the leech of the jib should be parallel to the vertical curve of the mainsail at the main's deepest point. As seen in the image, we are only concerned with this below the spreaders. Great picture.

All we can do is to try to get them as parallel as the cut of the sails and our own efforts will let us. Basic adjustment of twist is covered in Optimizing.

Scott