The checkstay is used to add power back to the main when there is sufficient
backstay on that de-powers the main. The backstay is needed to tighten the
headstay and give you pointing ability as the wind picks up. The down side
is it de-powers the main when you put on backstay. Therefore the ability to
straighten the mast back up with a checkstay allows you to re-power the main
back up. Sometimes it will look like a serious backwind bubble in the
main.Keep in mind that in more extreme wind conditions we want the main
de-powered. We try to fly the battens only in blade conditions. We do have a
light to moderate amount of checkstay on in those conditions.
The downside to checkstays is sailing downwind. The original MORC design was a wire line from the bottom spreader and was lead to an adjustable genoa car on the deck just inboard and aft of the shrouds. It had a 1 to 1 line to tighten it. The problem with this design was you have to pull both on in order not to pull the mast of center and their angle is not very efficient. The beauty of them is that they are not in the way when sailing down wind. We moved the checkstay location on the mast to between the spreaders. They were then lead aft to either side of the backstay. This means you need a shock chord retainer system to pull them out of the way when released down wind. You also have to flip them out of the way when gibing the boom down wind. They add tremendous ability to add power to the main. This really helps upwind by re-powering the main and adding shape. There are pros and cons to each solution but I prefer my setup.
We also found a need to have eye straps over the ball fitting on the mast to keep them from accidentally coming out of the mast. This happened once on the way to a regatta where the ball fitting somehow popped out and we sent someone up in the chair to reattach it. Now the eye strap prevents them from popping out.
Rich Casnning
Speelbound
Received on Tue Mar 25 11:46:21 2003