Caelus wrote:
1. How tight should my tramp be? You can see in the picture that it looks a little saggy with nobody on it.
Tramp should be as tight as you can make it without pulling out the grommets or ripping all the skin off your hands.... Seriously, some folks make the tramp on a 16 so tight that the side bars bow inwards. Keep in mind that if you have an aftermarket tramp (which looks to be the case), it may not be up to the task of handling that much load. But either way, the tramp should not be floppy.
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2. How much mast rake should there be? I had it on the top holes of the shroud stay adjusters and the jib tight and i was able to pull the main sheet blocks together until they touched pretty easily.
There's a ton of discussion and theory about how much mast rake is right on a 16, and the number has changed over the years as the boats have evolved to accept more rake. But in general, you should rake back as far as you can while still allowing the sheets to be pulled in tight for going upwind. At some point, you will rake back so far that the leech of the sail will not get tight and you won't be able to sail upwind.
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3. Rigging the main sheet and de-rigging it to put the boom away is a real pain and time-waster, is there a better way? Can I pull the traveler out of the track easily?
You can not easily remove the traveler car from the track, but as mentioned above, just pull the pin between the lower mainsheet block and the traveler car (note you will still need to un-string the traveler sheet from the traveler car each time). You can also unpin the upper blocks from the boom if you want.
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4. Someone told me a regular tarp would hurt the fiberglass somehow, I've never heard anything like that, what should I use to cover it when it's stored?
The tarp will only hurt the boat if it's allowed to move around and chafe the boat. Just make sure it's tied securely and you should be fine. You may want to remove it if a large wind storm is forecast. Also, if you "tent" the tarp over the mast, make sure it is not able to collect water or snow as the load can break the mast or boat. When doing this, I usually punch a couple holes in the tarp to be sure it can not hold water. You'd be amazed how easily a small puddle can grow to many gallons of water capable of bowing a mast like a toothpick.
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