A question from a novice MM sailor:
“do you know of a
position, and etc. My boat is going slow and
The advice and figures from a seasoned sailor.
On my MM the height of the fixing point of the forestay to the mast is 62,5 cm.
Personally I make sure the mast has always maximum rake backwards with the mast foot on the bottom of the mast sleeve and max backwards in the deck hole and use 5 mm masts for all rigs. I never change this.
The biggest sail (called A Rig) is only useable in light winds and as soon as the wind force rises above 7 knots I change it for the B rig and you will notice the handling of the boat gets much easier. The B rig has the same jib as the A rig and the same height for the fixing point of the forestay to the mast. The mast is cut of 1 cm above this point. The backstay crane must be lengthened to 8,5 cm. The B mainsail has the same configurations as the A sail, but has a horizontally cut off top at the top of the mast and a batten should be glued in the top of the leech corner under 45 degrees, to about 1 cm of the luff.
Tip: If you are a starting MM sailor I actually advice you to start with this sail, because the boat handling is much easier and only slower in very light winds.
Struggling upwind has nothing to do with mast rake, but is a result of a mainsail that is set to lose (full) on the foot and has not enough twist in the leech of the mainsail and the leech of the jib.
When everything is set the right way, the MM sails itself and then it is not necessary to give helm all the time!
Succes!