Anybody have any opinions?

I noticed recently pre-start that a club member who's national squib champion was beating in medium airs with the back stay fully loose. Standard wisdom in my mind was backstay on upwind and increasing the amount as the wind builds.

Anyway, the bloke obviously knows what he's doing so I thought I'd give it a go. It seemed that by releasing the backstay fully upwind in medium airs we could get more height, unless this just corresponded with a lift. This with the boom around midships. The main looked good still, as obviously there's a totally different regime with backstays on mastheads and fractionals.

Presumably there's the vmc question to consider etc.. and I'm gonna keep experimenting. Just wondered if any (more experienced) GK racers would like to share their wisdom......?

Jez
Chuckles Too

I tend to use backstay just to tension the forestay on Minx (Masthead), it really depends on how loose the residual tension in backstay without pulling it on. I guess with no backstay pulled on, the forestay sags about 4-5" sideways when viewed from helm and as wind builds, pull backstay to stop the genoa gettign too full. Backstay length from main shackle to teak stern gunwale outer edge mid height is 9790mm.
I tend to use the babystay to flatten the main, mainly from the middle (babystay is adjustable, just don't let it all off as the mast inverts!) Haven't had much success with backstay to flatten, the mast is too stiff, it probably flattens a bit but babystay is better, or lots of twist on the main, traveller up to windward etc in a blow.Single line reefing combined with rod kicker means reefing is easy, 30-40 seconds max.

Regards

Chris Hawkes
Minx GBR 3387T