I can't speak for Jerry but I'm guessing that what he's getting at is that there is less tension on the backstay because the angle formed at the clew of the main sail is greater than the angle formed at the tack of the headsail. This is because this distance from clew of the mainsail to the mast is greater than the 'J" (the distance from mast to bow stem). Think of when you go camping and put up a tarp and use downguys to hold up the poles. The further out from the pole that you plant the tent peg the less tension it takes to hold up the tarp. Joe ----- Original Message ----- From: "Larry E Yake" <leyake@juno.com> To: <montgomery_boats@mailman.xmission.com> Sent: Monday, November 30, 2009 9:59 PM Subject: Re: M_Boats: Backstay

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It's really unlikely that the backstay has stretched significantly; it has about half the load as the headstay. Jerry

Really?? I don't understand how that is so on a M17, Jerry, where the backstay is used to tension the headstay. Could you explain it for muddleheaded me?

Thanks, Larry

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