Winston29
Active Member
I know this sounds like a silly (stupid?) question, but just yesterday I noticed that the mast on my 14.2 seems to lean slightly forward. Most boats I see have their mast leaning slightly to the rear, if at all. Catamarans, especially, seem to have a pretty steep rearward rake.
I recently put new shrouds and a forestay/furling jib on the boat, but failed to notice if it had this forward rake with the old rigging, so I don't know if it's always been this way or not. It's hard to tell in photos.
Nothing should have changed. I compared the new rigging to the old before installing it, and everything was the same length.
I'm 99% sure the mast isn't warped forward. If I look at the foot of the mast, I can see that the rear of the foot is slightly farther from the deck than the front, reinforcing the belief that it's leaning. Then again, I only noticed this while the boat was sitting on the trailer, so perhaps the bunk boards are holding the stern up higher, giving the illusion of the mast leaning.
To my eye, it looks pretty level on the trailer, but I'll put a bubble-level on the rail when I get the chance.
Thing is, my forestay is crazy-loose and needs to be tensioned, and I fear that if I accomplish this by shortening the forestay adjuster, the mast really will lean forward, and a lot.
I know the shrouds and forestay are adjustable, but my forestay adjuster is on its last (longest setting) hole, and the shroud adjusters are just too tight to shorten them any further..
So I ordered a longer forestay adjuster and plan/hope to extend the forestay length just enough to let me shorten the shrouds one hole and lean the mast back a little bit.
Thing is, if slightly forward is the way things are supposed to be, I'll skip it and leave it alone. The only thing I could find in the manual was something about leaving the shrouds loose so the mast could move forward when sailing downwind, allowing the jib to fill with with wind better (or something like that)...
Anyone?
- W
I recently put new shrouds and a forestay/furling jib on the boat, but failed to notice if it had this forward rake with the old rigging, so I don't know if it's always been this way or not. It's hard to tell in photos.
Nothing should have changed. I compared the new rigging to the old before installing it, and everything was the same length.
I'm 99% sure the mast isn't warped forward. If I look at the foot of the mast, I can see that the rear of the foot is slightly farther from the deck than the front, reinforcing the belief that it's leaning. Then again, I only noticed this while the boat was sitting on the trailer, so perhaps the bunk boards are holding the stern up higher, giving the illusion of the mast leaning.
To my eye, it looks pretty level on the trailer, but I'll put a bubble-level on the rail when I get the chance.
Thing is, my forestay is crazy-loose and needs to be tensioned, and I fear that if I accomplish this by shortening the forestay adjuster, the mast really will lean forward, and a lot.
I know the shrouds and forestay are adjustable, but my forestay adjuster is on its last (longest setting) hole, and the shroud adjusters are just too tight to shorten them any further..
So I ordered a longer forestay adjuster and plan/hope to extend the forestay length just enough to let me shorten the shrouds one hole and lean the mast back a little bit.
Thing is, if slightly forward is the way things are supposed to be, I'll skip it and leave it alone. The only thing I could find in the manual was something about leaving the shrouds loose so the mast could move forward when sailing downwind, allowing the jib to fill with with wind better (or something like that)...
Anyone?
- W