Set-up used on Big Bad, CAN 7414 During Championship events, 2003

A 1985 built, wooden hull was purchased and rebuilt from the outside in. Part of
the process was to remove all the older 1980s rigging, replacing with the newer
systems used on most of today's top boats. The sail choice was Quantum. We
have many years of experience with Quantum sails on our J24, and appreciate
the after sale service and support that Quantum provides.
What follows are some items necessary to achieve a top performance.

Boat Setup
Centreboard Position
Set up the centreboard to make sure it is as far aft in the hull as class rules
allow. The proper measurement is 2600mm from the aft transom face to the
leading edge of the centreboard when the centreboard is in the full down
position, 90 degrees to the hull.

Rudder and Centreboard

Make sure the rudder is centered on the transom and perfectly inline with
the centreboard. This assumes your centreboard is perfectly in inline within
the hull, to the hull and the centreboard case, as well with the mast and the
mast position. This is not always the case, especially with older boats. If you
do know that some components are out of square, then adjustments should
be made.

Spars and Spreaders

We use a Super Spar mast section (M2 or M7).
Make sure that your spreaders on your mast are at a proper length for your
combined skipper/crew weight. We try to sail at 340lbs or less. Spreader
length is 17" or 430mm, point to point. The Spreader deflection is 6" or
152mm. This may be measured by tying a string to each spreader tip to
create a line. Then, measure the distance at 90 from the back of mast to
the string.

Rig settings
The mast step position of 10'10" (3302mm) is used. It is measured from the
outside of the transom to the front of mast at the base foot. During the
summer race season we did not move the mast butt/foot at any time. The
Mast rake, was achieved by measuring from the top of the black band at the
head of the mast, to the inside transom at the centre keel line, 22'10".
If the wind speed averages 15 knots or greater out on the race course, we
drop the shroud pin down one hole position.

Jib track position

We have installed the Harken Dinghy jib leads 453.18 (18" track) and the
450 jib car with 019 ratchet block. The centre of the track is 8 feet even,
from the inside the transom. It is mounted 17" or 432mm from the centre
keel line of the hull. Our general setting seemed to be approximately 3 to 4"
ahead of the 8' mark. We opted for the 18" track to give us the option of a
low aspect jib in the future. From a crew point of view I prefer the high
aspect jib. The trend to move both the skipper and crew weight back with
the crew sitting a foot or so back from the shroud puts the low aspect jib
lead in the middle of the crews feet. I found too many tangles and would
take more time to organize the sheets (clean house). It is usually in the
higher wind strengths when these rig layout deficiencies really show.

Rigging
We use standard 1/8 gauge wire for the shrouds.
The main halyard was replaced with 1/8 marlow Excel V-12.
The Jib halyard was replaced with single braid spectra/ dyneema 1/8". The
standard high friction jib halyard block in the mast was replaced with a
Harken 306 Thru-deck block. The goal here is to have a complete low friction
jib halyard system that can be adjusted in winds exceeding 20knots.

Sailing
We found the sails very easy to use and simple to adjust. One adjustment we
didnt need to use much of was the mast bender. With our weight (approx.
340lbs) we were able to sail in winds up to 16 plus knots with the mast 1.5 fwd
of the full aft position in the partners. One of our basic philosophies is to keep
the boat and sails powered up as much as possible at all times (while keeping
the boat flat), upwind pointing ability should fall right into place provided the
centerboard position and rig adjustments are correct, as mentioned above.
Everyone has their own methods and thought on setting sails; we try and keep it
simple. Basic guidelines are as follows:

Light Air conditions

Sailing upwind, we adjusted the jib halyard to allow 2-3 of slack between
the jib luff wire and the forestay. Boom vang completely off and no mast
ram. Boom outhaul is tightened just enough to keep the wrinkles out of the
lower section of the sail and to close up that pocket in the foot of the main.
Mainsail would be trimmed so that the top telltale would stall 30% of the
time. Jib fairlead adjustment is very simple. Set the fairlead so that all the jib
luff ticklers break evenly, and the mainsail is not quite back-winding.
Sailing off the wind, the jib halyard and outhaul is released all the way, and
mast ram used to straighten the mast completely. No boom vang is used.

Medium breezes
Again the same adjustments as for light air upwind sailing. When the wind
speed increases, and boom vang is required, mast ram may be needed only
to prevent the mast from over bending and de-powering the mainsail. This
adjustment is a judgment call based on; crew weight, wind, and wave
conditions.
Also as the wind speed increases, the jib halyard can be tightened as needed
to maintain luff tension.
Jib lead adjustment is the same as for light winds, except that the leads will
need to be moved back as the breeze increases.
Sailing off the wind is the same as light air, except that as the breeze
increases, boom vang will be needed to maintain leech tension, which will
prevent the main from spilling air.

Heavy Wind
Increased use of the outhaul will now help to flatten out the lower section of
the mainsail. In addition, cunningham is used to move the centre of effort
forward as the outhaul is applied to help keep the helm balanced. Adding
more boom vang now will further bend the mast and de-power the mainsail.
At this point we are usually sheeting the boom just over the corner of the
transom. The jib leads are moved aft again to remove backwind in the
mainsail. Easing the jib sheets slightly in the gusts, combined with
appropriate trimming of the main helps keep the boat flat and driving
consistently to windward.
As mentioned above, we found that at the Internationals in Kingston we
needed to use the mast ram to prevent the mast from over bending and depowering the mainsail too much. It is quite easy to apply vang to the point
where the main sail is so flat that it turns inside out. If this is the case and
you are still over powered, then it is time to adjust the shrouds down one
hole to correct this.