Yes absolutely you are fine, that is kind of the point of my post, we can worry about detals, do some tuning, the manual is a starting point for how deep someone wants to go, but at the end of the day, did we have fun, was it safe?FittsFly wrote: ↑Wed May 27, 2026 5:11 amAbout that, I typically find that when I hoist the mast my forestay is the tightest of the stays, the "twang" for it would be a deep "baritone" at best. The Rear stay typically very loose to the point I can wiggle it easily 2-3" back and forth, And the side stays, which I have tried to balance with equal tension somewhat (but theres always one on each side thats looser than one next to it) will not make anything close to a "twang" I would even say not even a deep "base" sound. Is this OK? I had finally shrugged my shoulders some time back and decided well if the sail is getting powered up on one side and the mast happens to move the opposite way and inch or so up at the top do I really care? Let me know thoughts. (Also maybe this is addressed in the manual but I havent looked and probably should)leefrankpierce wrote: ↑Tue May 26, 2026 12:13 pm 100% agree with with last post.
Our boats are not precision instruments.
Example: Loos gauges are kind of over kill for us, just get a reasonable "twang" when plucking the shrouds.
While Rodger gave us a boat that compromised on many things to keep the price down, he always errored on the side of making it almost impossible for us to hurt ourselves.
Stock sails and 4 degrees mast rake, you simply can not knock the boat down (with full ballast that is, people have figured out how to do it).
Makes the boat safe and we all owe a debt of gratitude to Rodger, but it leaves a lot of opportunities for performance improvement.
We do not often put our boats into ocean seas/weather, we know they are not made for that, so our rigs do not have to deal with those forces.
Our boats are lighter than ocean going, so also do not need the heavy rig or detailed tuning the big boats get.
Some might argue the mast moving around stresses the stays by allowing some inertia to build up, so possibly tighting the forestay using the turnbuckle to ensure side stay tension might be useful, however, that might just cause more time/effort when packing up on the trailer.
For years when I was trailering, I ran the rig loose so I could pin and un-pin easily. Later on I had one of these levers on my forestay to help me setup and tension the forestay.
https://www.westmarine.com/c.sherman-jo ... 46175.html
Boat still sailed in either configuration and gave us many great vacation memories on local lakes.
FYI: The tensoner added length to the forestay so gave me more rake, actually had to change where I sheeted my forestay and then move the mainsail up in the boltrope to get the end of the boom back up out of the cockpit.
Now I have the boat in a slip, so the rig is not regularly taken down, so I am fussing with tuning for no real reason other than I have the time and nothing else going on. Bought new sails cause my old blown out ones finally ripped.
Some say my motor is too big, Johnson 120.... Ya, ok, but the boat seems to like it so I keep it, and after dumping my ballast water, love the reactions as I blow by at 30knots with my mast up.
Do not expect to keep up with "dedicated" racing boats. Not my groove, but one day, one of those super expensive sailboats will need me to tow them home.
Summary: It is all about expectations, which I find defines the experience.
