RC44 no 18 Mast set up - By Dirk

Pieter,

Good to hear you are injoying your new boat.

The numbers Russell is using are pretty close. I always use a max jacknumber of 290 but that is with the ram all the way in. With the ram all the way in the mast in forward in the gate and the caps are very tight the D3's are firm and the D2's are not yet slack but not firm the D1's are always slack.

I believe that your guys measured the turnbuckles when we were in Trieste so you should be very close.

Please check that the turnbuckles that sit in the spreader bar are all the way screwed in and are locktided. If these are not all the way in than the lenght of the D will be different.

Keep playning with the mast tune.

sailing upwind in 17+ TWS have the rig at 25
sailing upwind in 12-17 TWs have the rig at 22
Sailing upwind in 9-12 TWS have the rig at 19
Sailing upwind in 6-9TWS Have the rig at 15-17
Below this maybe have it as far back as 13

The mast should start to sack from about 9 knts which shouldn't need any adjustment as the forestay ease will ease the d's relative more that the caps. The caps should never go slack!?!

The runner: Anything over 11 TWS grind it one as hard as you can plus a little extra. this makes a huge difference for the overall performance. The winches do break and so do the truningblocks so please check them often.

Below 11 : just go by feel if the guys sailing next to you can hike eralier than you can you have to ease the rig back and sail with a looser runner to help power the boat up. We often sail with everyone hiking and have no runner tension and everything is on the mainsheet with a high traveller + 4. When you start lowering the traveler you should take a little runner to keep the forestay in the same place.

Hope this helps, feel free to ask any questions.

Dirk