The Cape Dory Board

Just realized that if you have a fractional rigged weekender, you should only tension the fore and aft stays until they just start to create a bow in the mast when sighting up from the side. You could put more tension (up to 2" play), but that will start to change mainsail shape.

Is that 15% of the breaking strength of the chainplates, cabin top or the stays themselves and how do you calculate that? This is how I "tune" my boat: (it's probably not how the big boys do it, but it works quite well for me.) After getting the general tension as described in the cape dor...

I suspect your backstay appears slack at the mooring if your topping lift hangs from the backstay (as it did on my Ty), then if you tension the mainsheet, it creates slack below the topping lift attachment. The owners manual says you should have about 2" of play on all 4 upper shrouds and 4&quo...