Win Fowler

I’m in the process of ordering sails for a 40-foot cruising boat. I’m looking for good performance, but I’m not racing. I’ve heard conflicting views on short vs. full battens in a mainsail.

I have a Code Zero-type headsail with a torque-rope luff I’ve been flying with a continuous-line furler on my 40-foot cutter

I plan to buy a new mainsail for my C&C Landfall 38 and am thinking of making some changes.

The shrouds and backstay on my 17-foot Montgomery trailer-sailer are maybe an inch or so too long, even with their turnbuckles screwed down as short as possible.

Rig tuning is a subject worthy of many pages. Rather than trying to answer your specific questions, I will offer some general principles to guide you.

My brother and I own a 1966 Hinckley Pilot sloop that has been in my family for two generations. We love the boat dearly and normally spare no expense maintaining it. However, my brother now wants to install a carbon-fiber mast, and I’m wondering if it’s worth the money. Will it really make much of a difference on a heavy boat with a full keel? He’s talking about fiber rigging, too, which also has me worried.

I am retrofitting a removable staysail stay to a 1982 Bristol 40 sloop. The existing standing rig has both forward and aft lower shrouds. Do I need to add more support behind the mast to support the staysail stay when it is set up? I would like not to have to do this. If I do have to do it, what’s the most efficient, least expensive way to go about it?

 I’m planning on replacing all the running rigging on my 1978 Tartan 37 this spring for the first time since I bought the boat over 10 years ago. 

One thing I need to install is a liferaft, and I may want to put it on the coachroof right behind the mast, but the solid boom vang prevents this.

This past summer I purchased a used Valiant 40 with rod rigging. Though the rigging is about 20 years old, the seller assured me he recently had it reheaded and that it should last several more years.