Mast Rake

[richardbrennan]

I was advised by a Selden chap at the Boat Show that I should aim for a mast rake of not more than one or two degrees on my Westerly Ocean 33, which has a 15/16 rig. Does this sound about right? I have rather more at the moment.

 

[Birdseye]

well if Selden dont know, who does? I usually reckon about 8 inches measured at the gooseneck with a bend of two thrird of the mast chord maximum. But raking your mast too much or two little will only alter the lee helm / rounding up tendency, so its something you can experiment with. The mast bend is more critical and in any case need to match the cut of your main.

 

[lw395]

Sounds normal for a starting point, but if your current rake works well with your sails, it might not be wrong.

 

[mtb]

8 inches rake, christ that puts a lot of strain on the rigging you could cut chease with it. The colvic rounds up very fast but thus far it only has about 2 inches rear rake.

 

[rob2]

Not really, the amount of rake is a function of te length of the backstay and forestay, tension comes later! It will increase as you wind on the mast bend though.

Rob.

 

[William_H]

Mast rake theoretically will affect weather helm (or possibly lee helm) however in most cases weather helm is a function of an over powered hull heeling too much and any mast rake will not really change that. Mast rake will however affect the height of the boom above the heads of those in the cockpit or over dodgers etc.
On my little boat I go for no rake when on the trailer. This results in quite a bit of rake with the stern down with crew on board in the water. Yet the presence of heavy crew or light crew (more or less rake) seems to make very little difference to handling. (weather helm)
So I would suggest you do not worry about rake. Perhaps less would be worth doing if you had reason to replace or shorten the forestay. But not worth any real effort to change especially if you are happy as it is. good luck olewill