Main halyard

Owain you need to pull harder you girl, but seriously the sail should never be above the black band should it ????  Charlie and i have made a bet of a crate of lager with olly and iain re abersoch week, do you and your crew want to come in on the bet?

Good so your in for a bet first out of the 3 of us (iain, olly, Charlie and me, you and chris) Other 2 boats have to buy winners crate of lager, hopefully getting a new job so wont have to work weekends therefore 6 months practice with chandler.  Bring on Abersoch 2007

Owain, Mark Asquith is selling Herzog for £1 a metre at www.49eronline.co.uk , might be worth a look as the stuff is brilliant for halyards, etc. (Site will also be usefull for the other boat too )

All depends on transport as were gettin a van sometime in january , but we pick up the 9er on the 6th, so wont have had any practice, hoping to sail at chew over the summer when were bk frm uni, coz chris lives at taunton in somerset. We shud all join, think they have a waiting list though

Edited by owain

I used to have the rack set-up on the Lark and have it on the contender. In both cases you hoist the sail to the black band with the boom off the gooseneck and then pull down on the boom to get tension. If you want masses of tension use the cunnigham to stretch the luff after hoisting you can then easily get the boom on and release the cunningham. You must remember to move the splice aside when you hook on the wire otherwise it will wear through V. quickly.

People that have problems with this set up seem to either want to hoist with the boom on the gooseneck/cunningham or kicker tight or over hoist the main so the swaged fitting is jammed into the top block.

Another tip is to lubricate the luff / guide eitehr with silicon spray or candle wax - the sail goes up easier and so wears the rope tail less.

BTW the rope tail should run against the rack if you have a lower turning block so you can easily hook the wire on.