I have just got a set of nearly new Tornado sails and the main is cut for the modern pre-bent mast rig. My mast is the much older soft rig (not prebent). I don't have time to make the swap to the prebent setup for a race tomorrow (saturday). What should I do, use my 1973 vintage main or go with the new Ullman? When I test hoisted it last weekend, it looked VERY full with lots of draft compared to what my old sail does. The battens were quite slack. When I applied some muscle to the 8:1 downhaul, the top of my mast bent over much further than I've every seen it go.
I need a quick answer (race is Saturday and that's tomorrow!)
Thanks,
Mike.
Whops, I just noticed your message so I guess this comes a lot to late.
How did your race go, and what did you decide to do ?
I would have gone for your 73' vintage sails. But pre-bending the mast is fairly quickly done. Rake the spreaders 2 - 3 cm back. Then tighten the diamonds until the mast bends. Stretch a line from the top of the mast down to the mast rotation arm. Measured at the spreaders, you should have about 5 - 6 cm of prebend when you have the right tension.
This will only get you in the ballpark, and the tension/rake will have to be adjustet to your sails.
There is also a great article at the international tornado butt. web site about tuning the old rig. http://www.tornado.tc