Mast Bend

We have been told by a number of excellent sailors that mast bend is important to upwind boat speed. This is also covered in some detail in Tom Hubbell's book "Sailboat Racing with Greg Fisher". We initially struggled a lot with getting Dare's rig set up correctly and felt slow upwind, especially when there were a lot of waves. Chris LeBord provided some hands-on assistance at Nationals, shimming the mast to induce pre-bend. The boat feels a lot better to us and we now seem to be moving a little faster upwind, probably due in part to the improved rig settings. Pre-bend is about .5 inchs and I have attempted to measure the bend under sail using a couple of pictures taken at a recent regatta. Based on these pictures, bend in moderate conditions is about 3-3.25 inches. The pictures also show slight wrinkles in the mainsail, from the luff towards the middle of the boom which is a healthy sign.

I would like to understand the correct amount of mast bend under different conditions, and then see how our boat compares.

Great Pumpkin Regatta 2006

Great Pumpkin 2006