When sailing the I-20 with its chute up. What are the basic principles of halyard tightness in various conditions?
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<br>We generally just pull it up and go but I would believe that in varying conditions it could be advantages to loosen a foot or have as tight as you can go.
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<br><br><br>Mark
<br>Inter 20 no. 274
<br>Houston, TX

-Hi Mark -
<br> You will get some varied opinions on this ,
<br>generally as much luff tention as possible seems to help particularly reaching with the spin. -
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<br>-The only time I,ve experimented and let the spin halyard out is in light to med. winds running deeper allowing a fuller shape and opening up the slot between the spin and main at the top .
<br>-The same theory and effect as opening up the jib slot in lighter conditions .-which has proven to be faster .
<br>-hope this helps -
<br> best regards
<br> Carl Roberts<br><br>

I really don't have any experience with an A-sail on a cat but have alot on sport boats (viper 830, J-105, Melges, etc...). Generally we always wanted to go to full hoist on the halyard, but then would play the tack line to adjust luff tension. The more of a reach, the more luff tension. What was really surprising for us was when we were running deep, we'd ease the tack line a foot or so and this really helped rotate the sail out to windward and make it act more like a symmetrical chute. In heavy air, we would ease it about 2 and a half feet and this really helped lift the bow and get the boat flying.
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<br>Not sure how all this applies to cats, but would be very curious to find out if the lift will help counteract the boats tendency to bury the bows.
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<br>TB
<br>Tornado USA655<br><br>