I also noticed that the "through-the-companionway" pic of John (please allow that I quickly scanned the article, didn't look @ the caption closely, and may be wasting everybody's time here) shows a backstay adjuster over his shoulder, and his split stay is squeezed tight! I don't have enough play in my current stay to adjust it that much, but I'm replacing it in the next week or so. I am adding a Johnson release-lever (right terminology?) so that I can more easily attach the forestay with its CDI Flexible Furler. I have a backstay adjuster similar to John's. I've had it for years but haven't installed it, for reasons I won't elaborate. It consists of two blocks connected to tackle that squeeze the split backstays together to tighten the backstay. Long email short, the adjuster I have, and it appears, that John has, is very cheap and simple to install, and would allow anyone to play with rake and find out first-hand what works. ----- Original Message ----- From: "Howard Audsley" <haudsley@tranquility.net> To: "For and about Montgomery Sailboats" <montgomery_boats@mailman.xmission.com> Sent: Saturday, May 01, 2004 9:18 AM Subject: Mast Rake Just got the latest copy of SCA, and low and behold, "Miss T" is gracing the cover. Aside from the gorgeous boat, gorgeous setting, etc..... What stands out is she does have "a lot" of mast rake! So how much is "a lot". Using the beach as a horizontal reference, and the lighthouse as a vertical reference, and realizing the view is from about 20 to 30 degrees forward of the starboard beam, I'm measuring about 2 to 3 degrees of mast rake as viewed.....which is more like 3 or 4 degrees if viewed directly from the beam (spreaders nearly in line with the mast). This also assumes she was sitting approximately level at the exact moment John snapped the picture. Granted, this is all very crude....but what else do we have? Some of the more enlightened math whizzes may want to check my calculations, but to get that type of mast rake, assuming P (length of luff of the mainsail) is 19', then each degree of mast rake would equal about 4" of distance measured out from the mast at the boom. So if one wanted to get 3 or 4 degrees of mast rake, you could start by measuring off 12 to 16 inches out on the boom....then level the boat fore and aft and rake the mast until a plumb bob from the main halyard reached that range. Use that as a starting point and rake up or down from there? I think 12 inches would indeed be "a lot" of mast rake! Howard