I replaced my shrouds for the new season on my Trac 14, and the new ones are just a hair longer than the old ones. I'm able to effectively shorten them by changing some shackles, but I'm also wondering whether I should add something adjustable like my old Prindle 18 had. My question, though, is what the benefit is to having tighter shrouds. Does the rig leaning that little bit more actually translate into that much lost power? What exactly is gained by tightening them (which was instructed in my P18 manual)? Is this a performance issue, or just a matter of preventing the mast from slipping off the base in a capsize? If the latter, that would have happened if possible in yesterday's glorious pitchpole in the gulf... <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/ooo.gif" alt="" />

Thanks,
Kevin