Jennifer,
I owned the first Ericson-built Olson 911, and Carl Schumacher the designer consulted with me on fitting of checkstays for my boat, which I needed to meet race needs without interfering too badly with cruising/daysailing beer runs. I ended up with the following: Added wire rope checkstays with eyes fitted to ends so that I could attach block and tackle with integrated camcleat would could be snapshackled to the stainless plate at the mastboot at the cabin top when not in use (cruising). Tensioning the checkstays in this position was adequate to prevent slapping against the mast. I would move the checkstay snapshackles to each toerail (near the forward part of the stern pulpit) for racing, and the helmsmen could easily release the lazy side and tension working side during tacks. The line would be released and allow the checkstays to be slack enough to not interfere with the boom when running. Multipart block and tackle solved the problem of adequate purchase so that winches were never used on the line to tension the checkstay. I never had any desire to modify anything about the configuration in several years of ocean racing outside San Francisco.
--Wilton Received on Tue Jul 13 16:33:13 2004