Mast Rake Confusion III

After Chichester YC Open I realised that allowing the mast to bend...

• didn't suit the sails I have
• is not what the the front guys do

... so I needed to adjust things a bit. In part 2 of my Mast Rake Confusion I moved the mast step back to the rear-most position as this puts the mast at the back of the mast gate when the mast is roughly upright. This is best if you want to allow the mast to bend, as it can travel forward in the gate when you apply the kicker. But it is perhaps not the best place to be if you do not want to bend the mast.

If I leave the mast step in the rear position and don't bend the mast, all I have done is move the centre of effort backwards and that is not helpful as the Solo rig has a bit of weather helm to start with. So I have moved the mast step forward to the "middle" position of the three. You can see from this picture (if you squint a bit) that there is one position behind and one in front of the mast step now. 

If you move the mast step position forward without changing the rake (angle) of the mast then the mast moves forward in the mast gate by the same amount - about 1.5cm (or 13.2mm if you want to be precise 😊). That takes you quite near the front of the gate, so the mast cannot bend much. As that is my intention, all is good.

For now, I have put a 9mm chock behind the mast and a 2mm chock in front. The 9mm chock behind the mast fits loosely, so it is not applying any pre-bend to the mast at all. I am not sure if the mast bends forwards when on a run - if it does, this rear chock might help, but otherwise it does very little. The 2mm chock at the front fits with only 1mm (ish) to spare, so the mast is not going to bend much when you apply the kicker 👍

My shrouds are fairly tight compared to other Solos. I can still attach them without any real force applied, but they are not loose.

I have used this mast setup with the new Edge Maxx sail in recent club races and my results are much better now, so things are moving in the right direction. The sail is very nice and the reduced bend in the mast suits it and should also suit my North P2 I think.

I have had one medium breeze and two light breezes to try it out and the setup has been quick. So I am going to carry on with this for a while longer before finally making my mind up, but it is very promising so far 😎⛵