Cunningham (aka Smart Pig) Use

[Greene]

Our new loose footed mainsail arrived from FX Sails and it has a Cunningham cringle in it.  Since our booms (CP23) are not fixed we can tension the luff with the downhaul.  I'm curious if others find it worthwhile to rig the Cunningham for additional tension.



Mike

[Billy]

i don't. just use a downhaul on the boom

[Shawn]

I just rigged up the Cunningham on mine. To give enough clearance for the bimini I had to leave the boom up near the sail slot and could just hoist the main up all the way without being able to tension it as well. As such I ended up rigging the cunningham to allow me to be able to tension it better.

Shawn

[Greene]

Our bimini gets too close to the boom with our new sail as well.  I see that using the Cunningham could help in that respect.   I think I will shorten our bimini arch a couple inches so I can fully use our downhaul. 

Mike

[Shawn]

Mike,

If you want to try a simple Cunningham you could tie a line to the cleat on one side of your mast, run the line through the Cunningham cringle and then bring the line down to the cleat on the other side of your mast.

How do you like the loose foot so far? I'm still loving my new main. Today was the first time I tried it with the 130 jib (usually a 110) and was amazed at how much better it drove in lighter air. There wasn't nearly that much of a difference between the 110 and 130 with my old blown out main.

Shawn

[Greene]

The new loose footed main sets and holds very well in light winds.  We sailed in really light and variable winds the first 2 days we used it and were very pleased.  Monday night we sailed in winds 5-10 mph with some nice 15-18 mph gusts which it handled much better than the old one.  We found that we were heeling much less during the gusts and when we did heel it wasn't the snap heeling we were experiencing before.  The gusts will accelerate the boat and slowly heel us over as it gains strength.  This sure makes sailing the 23 a lot more fun.  

When we first got out into the better winds I was really unhappy with the major weather helm I was experiencing during the gusts.  I was trying to come up with a reason why the new main or the newly foiled rudder could be giving me so much weather helm.  I leaned over the transom to check for weeds wrapped around the rudder and was surprised to see the rudder floating along in the up position.  The 1/4 inch shear pin had worked loose allowing the rudder to float up.  Once I reinstalled the pin the excess weather helm disappeared.  I've already purchased and installed a new shear pin so I don't have that problem again.

It will be fun to experiment with luff and foot tension on the new main to see how it affects the sails performance.

Mike

[brackish]

Mike and Shawn.  Both of you indicate you have some bimini clearance problems with your new mains.  Is it because the luff and leech are longer than on the mains they replaced? Considering a new, loose footed main for next spring, but can't really lower the bimini any more, in fact would rather have a little more clearance.  Did you send measurements or did they just use the stock specs for the boat?

[Shawn]

Mine was stock specs for the boat I think luff of 22.75. It was a tight fit with my old main sail too.

Shawn

[Greene]

We also requested a standard dimension main for our 23.  I haven't measured it yet, but I'm still having issues with the boom rubbing on the bimini even when the luff isn't pulled tight.  I didn't have this issue with the old main. 

I also can't raise my main the last 2-3 inches because the headboard gets stuck under the backstay.  Anyone else have this issue?

I still plan on taking a couple inches off the bimini arch to create a little more clearance.

Maybe if you sail like us, slow and relaxed, you could just have the sailmaker shorten the sail up a couple of inches.  The little bit of performance loss would be worth getting some bimini clearance to us.

Mike and B

[MacGyver]

I dont think I have ever seen about a headboard getting caught in a backstay....... did they use too large a headboard?

Mac

[brackish]

my current main headboard also gets caught in the backstay if I raise it all the way.  so I don't.  I don't race any more, and only want a main that will be part of a balanced  rig, so thinking about cutting a few inches from the luff and ordering one with a headboard that is geometrically compatible with the backstay position.