Hi, Will,

Thanks for all the advice. Randy built me a square top, since I'm more interested in sailing as hot a boat as I can than in one-design on a 5.0! I'm gonna be in a portsmouth fleet whenever I race anyway, eh?



AM I correct that by "sweep" you mean the amount of rake in the spreaders? I've been gradually tweaking up and have hit 2.0" My prebend is up to about 2" as well, measured standing up, unloaded. As I had hoped and you just predicted, this weekend's sail showed a cleaner luff, with less DH, so the top leach stayed firm with less mainsheet, meaning the whole sail did more work. Amazing how the top leach on a square top is so responsive to DH!! Before this latest increase to prebend, I needed to DH so much to clean up the luff that the top wasn't willing to stay on the job without heavy sheeting, which flattened the bottom of the luff but left the top luff very deep indeed. A teensy bit more prebend later, things are much better.



I think I've finally entered the useful prebend range, just on the "Light air" end... I'll just dial up the prebend slightly now for medium and heavy air; it's still a little full to really go fast.



Oh, yeah! It rotates slightly easier since I added the last 2and1/2 turns on the spreader adjusters, bringing my spreader rake up to 2". Thanks for telling me that 2" wasn't extreme. I'm less nervous to be back that far, now.