Roger,
I notice while perousing your site that you have a rather nteresting looking
backstay setup. My boat has twin back stays which has always made adjustment
a right royal pain in the bum but your setup seems to answer this problem.
Do you have any images of the setup that you could email to me or details of
your setup ? Is it a proprietory brand product or did you make it up
yourself ?
Regards
Andrew

It came with the boat and is a standard item.

I don't think of it so much as a backstay tensioner but as a backstay
reliever. You can get it to the same tension with a turnbuckle but
then the hull and rig are set up like that all the time. Not having
that constant force and creep has got to be good.

With a stiff mast like mine, there isn't much sense in fine tuning the
backstay. I just horse up on it when I leave the dock and let it off
when putting the boat away.

--

Roger Long



tdw wrote in message ...
Roger,
I notice while perousing your site that you have a rather nteresting
looking backstay setup. My boat has twin back stays which has always
made adjustment a right royal pain in the bum but your setup seems
to answer this problem. Do you have any images of the setup that you
could email to me or details of your setup ? Is it a proprietory
brand product or did you make it up yourself ?
Regards
Andrew

Reliever is a better term I agree. Guess it's off to the rigging catalogues
and see what I can find. I've been tempted to modify the rig so that she
runs a single stay down to about three metres off the deck , then splitting
with an adjuster (reliever whatever) on one side going up to a block and
back down to the other where it would be fixed. Installing a system that
looks a bit like yours would be easier and less expensive. Thanks for your
reply
Regards
Andrew

ps - Maine looks pretty damn nice to me, fog or no fog. Sadly the east coast
of Australia is a bit far away for a short cruise.

tdw

"Roger Long" wrote in message
...
It came with the boat and is a standard item.

I don't think of it so much as a backstay tensioner but as a backstay
reliever. You can get it to the same tension with a turnbuckle but then
the hull and rig are set up like that all the time. Not having that
constant force and creep has got to be good.

With a stiff mast like mine, there isn't much sense in fine tuning the
backstay. I just horse up on it when I leave the dock and let it off when
putting the boat away.

--

Roger Long



tdw wrote in message ...
Roger,
I notice while perousing your site that you have a rather nteresting
looking backstay setup. My boat has twin back stays which has always made
adjustment a right royal pain in the bum but your setup seems to answer
this problem. Do you have any images of the setup that you could email to
me or details of your setup ? Is it a proprietory brand product or did
you make it up yourself ?
Regards
Andrew

In article ,
"Roger Long" wrote:

With a stiff mast like mine, there isn't much sense in fine tuning the
backstay. I just horse up on it when I leave the dock and let it off
when putting the boat away.

We have a tree trunk of a mast ourselves, but a tensioner is more useful
than you think. In light air, ease off to make the genny fuller; tighter
in weather to flatten it out.

Invite a racer or sailmaker onboard one day and let him/her play with it
a bit. You'll be surprised how much better the boat will go.

--
Jere Lull
Xan-a-Deux ('73 Tanzer 28 #4 out of Tolchester, MD)
Xan's Pages: http://members.dca.net/jerelull/X-Main.html
Our BVI FAQs (290+ pics) http://homepage.mac.com/jerelull/BVI/

Actually, I do that. On windy days, I take a big swig, a small one on
light days, and in between. I just set it for the general conditions
and don't think much about it underway.

What I would really like to do is pull some more of the forward draft
out of my elderly main but there's no way it's going to do that. By
sweating everything, I can just get the luff so it is a little soft
but (usually) not backwinding. OTOH that forward draft makes the main
more effective when sailing without the jib. Although I do that
infrequently, it helps me rationalize not buying another one

I was startled the other day to see the huge difference in windward
performance between whe working jib and 130% genoa going to windward
in winds near reefing force. The main is beautifully shaped after the
first reef and that combination is worth half a knot to a knot over
the roller sail. As soon as I ease the sheets however, the lack of
the rocket like reach I'm used to is pretty disappointing.

--

Roger Long