Rig Tension

The way I see it you need enough rig tension that the mast stays as bent as you require up to a wind strength that you can handle.  Above that wind strength you want the mast to bend more.  The amount of tension controls (amongst other things) when this change-over occurs.  If you have too little rig tension this change occurs before you are fully powered.  If you have a very flexible boat - such as my old plastic Enterprise - it is noticeable that you can't get enough rig tension to maintain control of the mast in strong winds.  My 4000 on the other hand is very stiff and the rig remains stable in very high winds and hence the other controls such as downhaul and kicker are very good at depowering it without drama.

I'm talking about light winds and strong winds ie when under-powered and over-powered.  There is a third wind strength called a drifter where sensible people retire to the bar, but if you do get caught out you'll find it really doesn't matter what what rig tension you use.  Much better to make sure you catch the puffs.

We sailed at Rutland, but last September at our Nats . Will you be at Grafham in June? Our Nats again.

Looking at the rig tensioning arrangement on the Vago, i'd guess just pull on as much as you can comfortably by hand (no crew hanging off the forestay or whatever) and that should do.

I note that the Vago rigging manual

http://lasersailing.com/downloads/boat-manuals/Vago.pdf

says you should not exceed 70kg on the shrouds - that's jaw-droppingly low.

But you should beat the 2k's in light airs when your better sail area/wetted area ratio will help (if you use the XD rig). After that, the trapeze will help. The most significant performance factor in Vagos seems to be (we 3000's have shared a few events with them) sitting really far forward, and i mean really uncomfortably far forward anytime your not trapezing or planing - the transom drags hugely otherwise. Probably due to the boat weighting a lot more than designer Jo Richards reckoned with.

While I have paid lip service to the idea of lowering rig tension in light airs, I've never felt any benefit of it, and have always worried that I was, as Jim C says, missing out by losing my mast pre-bend.

What is absolutely for sure in most classes, you will lose out big-time if you don't pull the tension back on when the wind comes up.

I'd forget it and focus on kicker and sheet tensions, or lack of them.