Loos gauge SC17

[Seawolfsailing]

Hello Everyone,
I generally solo sail my SC 17 in 15 knots and up and recently pitchpoled in wavy and icy conditions about a month and a half ago...rather foolishly. Like Hobie 16's - I think of rig tension as being parabolic: tight to a certain point is best, but then I want the mast to bend leeward to spill and loose works. Does anyone have any advice about this? I just added an active forestay tensioner akin to an Aussie halyard. I understand you can feel your way by turning the mast and feeling for rotation friction but prefer metrics like Loos gauge tension. I also just swapped all the standing rigging with dyneema and basically rebuilt the beast.

[Seawolfsailing]

I should note, my baseline sidestays are 9 but with my forestay adjuster on, 18 using Marlow Excel D12 SK78 12 Strand Dyneema 4 mm.

[Matt Haberman]

Hello,
The rig on the SC17 is typically pretty loose and never really found a use for the loos type gage on that rig..
Here are the recommendations for a starting point:

• Mast should have 5 degrees of rake relative to the deck of the hull. YOu can use angle finder from the local home improvement store. With the boat sitting on your trailer or on solid ground you start by measuring the angle of the deck right in front of the beam. You then put the angle finder on the front of the mast and compare the numbers, the difference is the mast rake. If you don't have 5 degrees, you can adjust the forestay accordingly to get the 5 degrees of rake.

• Once you have your mast rake established, you adjust the side stays so that the mast can rotate somewhere between 120-180 degrees. The mast should rotate easily from side to side so that the sail track points someplace forward of the sidestay attachment on the hull, and the end of the beam (120-180 degrees)