I just got new rigging and the headstay is not tight. How tight should it be and does anyone have detailed pics of the drum setup and the pigtail at the top of the headtay Thanks
The stay needs to be tighter than the downhaul tension on your jib, otherwise the jib ends up taking the load, instead of the stay.
I used to tighten mine by undoing one side stay, & hike out in a harness, then have someone put the pin in. You can gainone more hole by "bouncing". NAcra says, not so tight as to impede mast rotation.
Have a look through my album for setup photos.
http://www.thebeachcats.com/pictures/?g2_itemId=88268&g2_GALLERYSID=a3fe30a2e287a81e0c1bc804b60d55d9
not so tight as to impede mast rotation.
on my cats (h16, h18, mystere5.5) i have found that in light air you can have less tension on the forestay but in heavy air you want it tight as a drum (as with most lines on the boat in heavy air)
SUMMER wrote: I just got new rigging and the headstay is not tight. How tight should it be
The headstay should be just tight enough to still allow your mast to rotate forward of the beam, >90 degrees (or at least to its stops). If the wires are too tight to allow this, your sailing is hindered and there is undue strain on your wires when the mast tries to rotate.