John Forbes wrote:
In Australia we run heaps of mast rake. Same rake in all conditions.
The more rake you have, the more you slide the jib blocks forward to keep the same sheeting angle.
Try it! We run longer forestays (make a longer strop between the hound and the swivel block on the forestay) and then shorten the sidestays (firstly done by removing the twist toggles) then shorten the wire if the sidestays are still too long.
With more rake, we then run lots more mainsheet tension, stand slightly further aft and just drive the boat hard over any chop or waves.
Out of curiosity, what's the primary driver behind running that much mast rake? I haven't experimented with it much, but I keep my mast rake at a somewhat "medium" setting, and vary it slightly based on wind conditions. I know the H16's run with as much rake as they can get, but I believe that's largely to compensate for the poorer lateral resistance (due to the lack of daggerboards) in their design, as compared to H18's.
My understanding is that more aft rake = higher pointing ability but less power, so you'd want to rake it back more for lighter crews, heavier winds or calmer water, and rake it forward for heavier crews, lighter winds or choppy water. Do you ever reach a point where your mainsheet is two blocked before you've fully sheeted in?