Hi Folks,
My rig is up and I have sailed my freshly painted sloop for three weeks in Maine. After removing years of bottom paint, I can certify that a new bottom makes a big difference in light air performance on our boats.
When my rig was put up, the mast was given some rake-in previous years it was vertical to imperceptively raked forward. The helm felt great and, as I said above, the light air performance was great. Havn't had her out in moderate winds yet.
When the rig was installed, the aft face of the mast was left leaning against the aft edge of the deck opening. The distance to the front of the deck hole is large-perhaps as much as 2". It is pretty equal on port and starboard, about an inch on each side. There are no wedges in yet and I would have to make some to fit this new space. In this configuration, I would have wedges forward, and to port and starboard, but none on the aft face (because none will fit). Does this seem ok? The deck hole itself looks very crude, but its sturdy and the edges are well sealed with epoxy. I like the way she sails now-its better than the way it was installed last year, but having wedges on three sides and none on the back kind of makes me worried. The mast moved a lot in the opening when observed from down below while sailing-and I want to stop that. All advice appreciated,
Jim
Jim
Do not adjust the position of your mast using the hole through the deck as the guide. The hole in the deck is just a hole in the deck. Is that hole in the location it was designed to be in, or where they happened to trim the deck flange that day and how it lined up with the hull when they attached it to the hull flange? We have see it all. We know of boats where the deck was glued on right to left incorrectly. We have seen boats where the chain plates are not symmetrical from the left side to the right side. To properly set your rig you need to measure from known points.
For starters I would measure from your stemhead fitting back to your cap shroud chain plates, is that distance the same on both sides? Just for the heck of it I would also measure from the outside edge of the cap rail to the mast collar. Are the dimensions the same on both sides? If not... oh well. There is nothing that can be done about it but it should be known for future reference. There are two adjustments that can be made with your mast. Mast rake - the fore and aft angle as compared to the waterline and the side to side adjustment.
Mast rake changes how the boat steers so to speak. The further forward the mast is raked, the less weather helm as the center of effort is shifted forward as compared to the center of effort of your keel. The further back the rake the greater the weather helm. Think of a windsurfer. They steer strictly with mast rake. Rack the mast forward and the windsurfer turns downwind. Rake it back and the board heads up. You can do the same with your boat. If you are constantly fighting weather helm (providing the sails are properly trimmed) rake the mast forward and it will diminish. If you induce too much forward rake, when a puff hits the boat it will pull to leeward and not round up. There is an ideal spot there the boat will be for the most part balanced, that is what you are looking for. Once you find that sweat spot, hook a tape measure to your jib halyard and run it to the top. Record that dimension from the masthead to the stemhead fitting. Next time the rig goes up set that dimension first. All race boats know that number. That rake dimension is the baseline of every tuning guide. That dimension is key.
Once the rake is set then your side to side adjustment needs to be set. Use your main halyard and run it to the outside of the cap rail. Cleat it off. You must apply the same downward force on the halyard on either side so you get the same length on the halyard. A spring type scale "fish scale" works well. Load the scale until it say reaches 10 pounds and cleat the main (easier with two people). Move the halyard to the other side. Is the dimension the same? If not, adjust you shrouds until the mast is completely equal and vertical side to side. If your mast is not evenly set side to side the boat will sail differently on each tack. We never measure to the chainplates because they are often at different dimensions from the centerline.
You will notice we never cared where the mast sits in the mast hole, that is not important. We have seen some boats where the mast can not be set equally side to side because the mast hole is so off center it becomes an interference problem. We also run into boats that the mast can not be adjusted fore or aft enough to achieve proper balance because the mast hole interferes. In those cases often the mast base can be moved to "adjust" for the mast interference with the deck opening. Once the mast is where you want it, then you add wedges to keep the mast from moving about when you plow through waves. If the mast is off center with the mast opening so be it.
Yes, a great bottom makes a huge difference in boat speed. A well tuned rig also makes a difference in both boat speed but how the boat handles as well. Most people ignore both. A fsat boat is a fun boat.
Dale
Nice treatment Dale. Thanks!
Found this... kind of says/shows it all. The center of effort of the sail plan vrs the center of effort of resistance of the keel. If the center of effort of the sail plan is behind the CE of the keel, the bow of the boat wants to rotate toward the wind. If the CE of the sail plan is forward of the keel CE, the boat wants to round down.
(https://cdn.ussailing.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/rake-affects-helm-figure-1-300.jpg)
Hi Dale
Thanks for your thoughtful answer. I learn something new everytime you post. Most of what you told me I had already internalized, but the reference measurement from the masthead to the stemhead was a new one for me and a great tip that I will store away, thank you. Regarding the placement of the mast hole, since it looks like it was cut with a hatchet, I don't doubt its not mathmatically correct in terms of location. I'm really only concerned with the effect of wedging around the mast in 3/4 of a circle and leaving the aft narrow face of the mast leaning against the deck. The way the step is positioned and the mast is raked leaves the aft face of the mast pressed against the raw edge of the hole. I don't want to damage the mast with an isolated pressure point, but I understand from my reading that that face is stronger than the sides of the mast due to the narrower radius. Mine mast is also an old Hood furling rig, so its kind of a tree trunk to begin with. The mast is raked a little now-eyeballing the rake its barely noticeable and I'm going to quantify the rake with a weighted halyard-but I have sailed with it and it feels good. Last year it was raked forward and that rake was visible from shore-but at least it left room for wedging the mast in the "hole"( isn't it called the partners?). All the wedges fell out anyway last season to know ill effect, but it got me thinking. Without the wedges, the pumping of the mast is very visible where it passes through the deck. My understanding is the wedges provide another support point for the mast in additon the the caps, backstay, forestay and lowers and the step itsself. I'd like to get the rig as rigid as possible and maximise the potential as we know our boats are not light air performers and light air is what we have in the summer in New England. And by virtue of the inmast furling, my main is smaller so I really need all the help I can get from a stiff rig. Contemplating converting to a non furling main-but thats a project for another year.
Jim
Jim,
How is the weather helm with full sail and wind strong enough to think, "Hmm should I reef now?"
Same question with the mizzen furled. With Mizzen up, CE moves aft, so with mizzen down, you should have more weather helm. I have a cutter, so not sure if the mizzen has a noticeable effect on weather helm.
If you have weather helm with 15 - 18 knots, full sail, and lee rail nearly awash, you might rake fwd just a tad to get it mast off the aft face of the hole. That will give you a bit of room for wedges and take any pressure off that contact point. If raking to give 3/8" or 1/2" at the partner aft face introduces lee helm in light air, you can always take it back to where it was (current position).
Your Hood StoWay furling main has a hollow leech, which already moves the CE forward a little bit. You could experiment to strike a balance between fwd rake to get mast off partner, reduce weather helm in strong wind (just before you reef) and not introducing lee helm in light winds. Of course, with your furling main, you have infinite reef points.
Attached is a spreadsheet to calculate the rake, based on height and degrees of rake.
If you want a 3/8" gap at the partner, rake the mast fwd 1/4 of a degree. This will move the masthead (assuming 50' mast) forward by about 2-5/8" (2.62"). This will likely have no noticeable effect on weather/lee helm. At the spreaders, which is about where center of effort is, the mast will move forward by 1.46 inches (assuming 28 feet to spreaders).
Adjust the numbers (T and A) to get the the gap you want.
In the spreadsheet, the yellow columns use the same formula as the gray columns to get the value of the unknown, x, which is the horizontal distance (the gap or the masthead).
P69,
I am gobsmacked! You put into a formula what I was struggling to articulate and nailed it for me. Thank you. Plus, you reminded me of the hollow leach that my furler imposes on the sail plan and its impact on the helm. Really interesting stuff. The helm felt much more alive on my last cruise with the aft rake that the yard gave me at launching. Previously, with the rake at zero or perhaps even slightly forward, the helm felt dead. The wind has been very light this summer so I have not been able to test it in a brisk breeze yet, but am hoping to this week and will report back. I suspect I will see excessive weather helm in a strong breeze, but I also believe a little rake aft is what my boat and sail plan need to optimise whatever performance she can manage as an older design loaded for cruising. Going to drop a weighted halyard off the back of the masthead this afternoon to quantify the amount of rake I have now. That will give me a starting point for adjustment and I will report back.
Interested to hear how your project is coming along-you had an ambitious remodelling project ahead of you. Any progress?
I really do not agree with much of anything in P69's last post besides mast rake affects how the boat sails.
Let me start with the mizzen statement. Indeed the center of effort of the sail plan moves aft with the mizzen up as the CE is way behind that of the keel. So... with the mizzen down, weather helm should be much less, not increase. If you look at the diagram above, think of the CE of the keel pushing toward you. The keel after all is the resistance to side slip. So, with the CE of the keel pushing toward you and the CE of the sails pushing away due to the pressure of the wind, the boat in the picture would pivot like a wind vane. If you only had the headsail up and you looked at the keel forces and the sail forces, the bow of the boat would pivot down and have lee helm. Mizzen up only and the stern would pivot down creating lots and lots of weather helm. That's why many twin stickers keep their mizzen up at anchor as the boat keeps its nose into the wind.
The sail plan design is the combination of the CE of the sails acting against the keel CE. Think of a standard sloop with a main and a jib as a teeter totter. The mainsail is one end seat of the teeter (stern) and the jib is the other seat (bow). The center pivot of the teeter totter is the keel. The riders (main and jib) combined are pushing against the keel (ground/water). The keel of course pushes back. If the mainsail and the jib apply equal forces (the riders weigh the same) then the teeter is balanced, everything is balanced and nothing moves. In the case of a boat the boat would be balanced. You could steer up or steer down (up or down meaning up into the wind or down with the direction of the wind) and it would be easy and balanced. In flat water with a steady breeze your boat is that balanced teeter totter. If you add some waves, it would be similar to the riders pushing off with their feet, the ends of the boat would move up or down. Your rudder of course allows you to adjust and you can even everything out and the boat can travel straight. Your rudder can add or subtract weight so to speak by adding positive or negative CE.
Let's say we added some weight to the rider that represented the mainsail. Now the weight (force or CE) of the mainsail pushes the aft end of the teeter down and the other end (bow) goes up. We know up as weather helm. Down of course is lee helm. The added weight can be additional sail area, additional trim to catch more air or... sliding ones weight a little further away from the teeters pivot point or rake. Rake aft and the bow goes up, rake forward and the bow goes down.
This gets me to the second point about weather helm with 15 to 18 knots and adjusting rake. Yes, adjusting rake will help balance the boat in any wind speed, but the design of any good boat means weather helm is built in. Indicating that with 5 - 18 knots, full sail, and lee rail nearly awash weather helm appears and that changing the rake in light air can introduce lee helm just isn't so. The design of the boat and how it is trimmed introduces helm, not the wind speed. Weather helm by design is present at all wind speeds. In light air the forces generated to create weather helm are minimal, almost unnoticeable. As the wind speed increases, so do those forces, and they become more and more noticeable until eventually given high enough forces, the boat rounds up all by itself and unloads those forces.
A boat that is trimmed or set up improperly and displays lee helm, (bow drives down) does not self unload and the harder it blows (increasing forces) may not even be driven up by the helmsperson or the rudder, loading harder and harder until it capsizes. So, the level of the wind speed only amplifies the forces that are already there, it does not create them. Weather helm thankfully is designed in and will always be there, but we can adjust it when it becomes the dominating factor. Inducing mast rake forward or aft by the position of the mast in the deck mast hole is not advisable. Again, is the hole in the designed location or the as built location? When numbers like 3/8" or 1/2" at the partners are discussed, one must realize that equates to a movement at the end of a 365's 48ft stick of approx. 3-1/2" which adjusts the CE of a mainsail approximately 1/2 of that which equates to a relatively large adjustment. When we are talking to racers, we talk in terms of taking off or putting on one or two turn on a headstay turn buckle as an adjustment. A 5/16" turnbuckle has 24 threads to the inch. That equates to 41 thousands of an inch per rotation or only .041" per each turn.
The statement regarding the Hood furling main is semi correct in that because of the hollow leech the center of effort does mathematically move forward. That in itself would adjust the trim of the boat to have less weather helm but we can not forget that scooped leech also has less overall sail area. Center of effort (CE) not only indicates the position of the applied effort but it is a value of that effort. Let's go back to the teeter totter example. If we had two 50 pound riders both sitting 10 feet out from the balance point all is equal. The engineering physics behind it would be the distance from the pivot point (10ft) multiplied by the load (50 lbs) would equal 500 foot pounds. Each rider applies 500 ft lbs to the teeter in equal and opposite directions so it is balanced. If one rider ate a quarter pounder, that riders resulting force would be 50-1/4 pounds x 10ft or 502.5 lbs, so that riders side of the teeter would now have more down force and that side of the teeter would fall. If the other rider didn't eat a balancing quarter pounder but shifted their weigh outbound slightly so they were 10.05 feet from the pivot, all would be in harmony again and the teeter would be level. So, the scooped mainsail leech moves the CE toward the keel CE which does reduce weather helm, but the reduced sail area also applies less force reducing the weather helm effect even more. This is why reefing brings the boat under control helm wise. The CE of the sail is moved closer to the keel's CE reducing its force reaction, and the reduced sail area reduces that applied force even more.
Again, forget about the gap at the deck. The distance between the edge of the mast hole and the mast in any direction is meaningless! Adjust the rig so that the boat preforms the way you want or need it to. If the deck hole becomes the limiting factor move the mast base. This of course brings us to another variable. How did the mast base end up where it is fore and aft? The factory? The commissioning dealer? Joey bag of doughnuts the rigger? The last owner? How can you determine when it is in the correct position? Simple... when the boat sails as balanced as you want it in the typical wind conditions you need it to sail in, everything is in the right place!
If you move the masthead 2-5/8" fore or aft it will make a big difference on the sailing characteristics of the boat with a 50ft rig by increasing or decreasing the effects of the sail plan location upon the helm. Also, if you adjust the fore and aft mast rake by adjusting the headstay and the backstay and you limit the location of the mast at the deck you will induce mast prebend. Prebend is the offset of the center of the mast from the dead straight position. There is positive prebend (mast center pushed forward) and negative (mast center moving back). You can see prebend by sighting up the spar. There is static prebend and loaded prebend. Static prebend is the bend introduced into the mast by rig tune as it would sit at the dock. This is most often done for several reasons. Often it is done to create or modify the shape of the mainsail or to depower it. It is also done to introduce or move the draft or move the CE forward by easing the leech.
Sometimes prebend is introduced to preload the spar to reduce pumping, a condition where the middle of the mast moves forward (continues to move forward) as the boat slows as it hits a wave. This is an example of loaded prebend as it only occurs under load. Standing there, the center of the mast will move forward relatively easily. The further the mast is bent, the more resistance the structure of the mast creates internally to be bent. If you bend it forward and preload resistance to additional bend in, it now resists movement and will move far less with each wave you hit, keeping the rig and sail set up more uniform. As the center of the mast moves forward, the CE of the main moves forward and changes helm and the drive of the rig.
A baby stay is another method to induce quickly selected loaded mast prebend. It is a stay that attaches half way up the mast on the forward side and is lead to a traveler car arrangement which is located at the base of the mast and heads forward. As the traveler car is pulled forward, the stay pulls the center of the mast forward introduces mast prebend. As the wind and sea state builds, the babystay is applied moving the center of the mast forward easing the mainsail leech, moving the mainsail draft forward, both depowering the main and stiffening the bending moment of the spar minimizing further movement.
Another method to introduce prebend is to build the rig with swepted back spreaders. The 365 has neutral spreaders. They are inline which means they will not resist or promote prebend, only resist movement side to side. In a rig with swept back spreaders, as the cap shrouds are cranked on, the increased tension is transferred to the spreaders and the spreaders push the center of the mast forward. On a rig like a 365's, prebend can be induced utilizing the lowers. Add some tension to the forward lower shrouds and the mast will prebend. The aft lowers are deigned to minimize the pumping forward motion and to off set the forward loading of the mainsail. Same thing with the contact point of the mast at the deck although not as effective. If the backstay is adjusted to pull the mast tip back, and the deck stops the mast from leaning rearward, the mast will prebend. By adding wedges at your deck opening you can also introduce prebend.
If any of you are interested in your rig tune, the first thing I would recommend doing is recording what your current set up is. I say this because too many people make an adjustment for what ever reason, and it did not achieve the desired outcome (the most common is taking the rig down) and they want to go back to what they had. Most often the immediate problem becomes, what was the setup before it was changed? Counting turnbuckle turns is always advisable. Racers talk in turns all the time. They know, for their boat, when the wind speed reaches "X" its 2 turns up on the lowers, 4 on the uppers and so on. This must be adjusted of course from a baseline. Any tuning guide would give that base line and everything is based on that. The base line is achieved from measuring the tension on the individual standing rigging. A Loos gage is the most common method. A good rigger can grab your shroud, give it a yank and be within 5 to 10% of the applied loading. They of course know by experience the loading on the specific diameter of the wire and its length.
Mapping a rig baseline may not be worth the time especially if the owner/driver can't or is not at that level to tell the difference of right/wrong or anything in between. The better the driver the more attune they become and the more important it all becomes. I can tell you that after years of competitively racing a J-22, as a driver I can take the feedback I get from the tiller, tell tails, how the boat handles and the drivability of the boat, if the rig needs to be adjusted and perhaps even how to do that. I say that because my son our sail trimmer, would feel that the boat was not happy and ask "How does the boat feel to you?" I would say something such as: I can't hold a line, the slot is too narrow, its a bit overpowered, the tails are high, I have light rudder and so on. All of this mean if the sails, traveler, vang, backstay, headsail car position, headsail halyard tension, cunningham, weight on the rail and so forth are adjusted properly, the rig tune needs to be changed. Often a turn or two on the cap shrouds made the boat a rocket or a dog. Eric was in charge of all rig tune. We were allowed to change tune up to 5 minutes before the start of each race. Seldom a race would end where we would not make a change to the tune, and often as a race proceeded we would discuss the next anticipated change as the conditions changed. The one thing that never changed was the headstay dimension. As the driver, I adjusted the backstay tension, often with every puff or at least into or out of tacks. At the end of the night we would return the rig tune back to the baseline, so the baseline setting was everything. A winning team will use their Loos to verify the baseline settings often. Things change and when they do, the repercussions on performance change logarithmically.
Race boat tuning guides are very comprehensive. Headstay dimension is all important. A top race boat knows all of their settings for weight of the crew onboard, sea state, wind pressure, sails being used and any anticipated weather condition changes. Most boats keep a written log. Even the sound a boat makes while underway changes when the tune is correct, both in the sound through the water and the noise in the rig.
Establishing a baseline if you would like to is relatively simple and doesn't require an expensive Loos gage. Start by measuring your headstay dimension. That is key. Use a jib halyard and hoist a measuring tape to the mast head. Record the dimension from the masthead to the stem head fitting. Use a machinist calipers ($3 at harbor freight, $25 for a decent set you can use for lots of things) measure the dimension from end of stud to end of stud inside your turnbuckle bodies. Record all of those dimensions for each turnbuckle. If you know those dimensions you can repeat your specific rig tune each and every time it is taken down and put back up.
I hope this all helps. As always there is much more than what has been covered here, but for the average inquisitive cruiser this is plenty. If you have a desire to be a better sailor and improve your boat handling skills, get yourself on a good racing team. Even a rail sitter can hear, see and learn lots. The type of boat is not that important as it is about the crews combined abilities. The average racer learns more in a season about achieving boat performance and boat handling skills than a cruiser will in ten years.
Dale
Dale,
Thanks for catching that mistake, "With Mizzen up, CE moves aft, so with mizzen down, you should have more weather helm.:"
I meant to write "less" weather helm with mizzen down.
Regarding the gap at aft face of the mast, the only reason to rake mast fwd is if the mast is pressing hard against that hole and putting an unfair strain on the mast at that point.
With a roller furling main, the mast should not have any bend; otherwise, rolling the main in and out will become less-than-easy.
As far as weather helm when winds are fresh, I agree that weather helm is designed into the rig/hull, and does not change, but weather helm is more pronounced in higher winds and greater heel, until you reduce sail, which decreases heel and moves CE slightly fwd. If one wants to carry full sail longer, but weather helm is too strong, raking the mast fwd might help, as long as there is still slight weather helm at light winds when the hull is not healing. That is the balance I was referring to when stating that Jim needs to strike a balance between too much weather helm at stronger winds and not introducing lee helm in light winds. If his boat is balance well now, then the only issue is whether or not the mast is pressing too much against the aft face of the hole in the deck. If so, he can cut the hole a bit to relieve that stress or rake the mast forward, being careful to not introduce lee helm in light winds, because, as you stated, the boat will not round up if too much lee helm.
Dale-I am Joey Bag of Donuts-in that I may have moved the mast base at one time several years ago. Your treatise was excellent and really helped me understand the concepts of CLR and CE better-thank you. I know our boats are not rockets, but that increases my desire to achieve the best they can do as cruisers. Took some measurements last night and was reassured on two counts: 1. The cap shroud chainplates are equal distances from the stemhead -192" port and starboard. The mast is equidistant from both rails so its centered at deck level amidship.
I adjusted the athwartships position of the masthead and it is exactly centered over the step as indicated by the topping lift led to both port and starboard rails at the cap shroud chainplates. My topping lift is attached at the center of the masthead and I attached a bucket of water to it to duplicate stretch on both sides.
Once the caps were snug, I adjusted the forward lowers and induced noticeable prebend. Hood specifically cautions against this as the furling mechanism wants the mast in column. I had lots of forward pumping last time I was out though (as seen at the partners) and the sail furled fine so I may leave it where it is for now. Maybe when I have it wedged that pumping will be reduced and I can reduce the prebend...
The aft lowers are just hand tight for now. I measured the rake again with the topping lift and a bucket of water-its definitely more than I had last year-once I figure out how to adjest the harken furler I will adjust the rake a little bit forward and take it out for a sail to see how she performs.
My old Loos tension gauge was purchased for my Vanguard and does not fit our larger rigging so thats an investment I need to make-they are not cheap.
Can't thank you both enough for the help-I learned a lot!
Hi all,
I took some pictures of the position of the mast in the deck flange. Still concered about the inconsistent spacing around the flange. Does this seem like a big deal or should I just let the wedges shove the column over in the flange? The mast is precisely centered amidship over the step. Given I have about 6" of aft rake, I am thinking of attempting to tip the rake a bit forward today to get a little more clearance. I propose to do this by loosening the backstay, removing the furler foil and tightening the head stay. Will run a halyard forward to support the mast while adjusting the headstay. My furler is an old Harken so I think it the whole foil needs to come off to adjust the screw in the furler.
Silly or sound plan?
In the end I just wound up wedging the mast over once I knew the masthead was centered over the deck. My logic was that the wedges are not there to keep the mast in column but to provide an additional support point and, as Dale said. to help prevent pumping forward or aft. I can say from the deck up, the mast is straight and centered over the deck with a slight rake aft. I'm going sailing.
As a followup-I purchased a Loos gauge-pretty expensive because of our 5/16" stays, but it showed the backstay was way under tensioned. I've increased the tension to 5% of breaking strength and that has considerably tightened the furler. Measuring the headstay would require removing a section of foil which I am hesitant to do at this point in the season. My furler is an old Harken Mach 1 and the sections are attached with roll pins...
Once we get some wind I will take her out and experiment with a higher tension-though backstay tension as shown on the gauge does not equal headstay tension- its a starting point! Sails are middle aged and my sailmaker says they have 4-5 years of life in them so this experiment is worthwhile. As Dale pointed out, it is a great thing to have established values to refer to the next season.
I am assuming you measured wire tension on the backstay on one of the split wires on the bottom. Did you multiply by two to determine the total load as each half of the split backstay carries half of the total backstay load.
Also, the Harken Mark 1 furler is an excellent unit however there have not been any spare parts available from Harken for many years. Be very careful of what you do to that unit as the only typical option is to replace it.
You probably now know more about you rig setup than the vast majority of owners.
Dale
Mine is a sloop rig so only the backstay to worry about...
I do realize the Harken unit is discontinued and a museum piece to boot- have to agree its an oldie but goodie.
As for knowing more about my rig-I could never own a boat if I had to pay others to work on it. Thats why I ask so many questions:) Besides which, who you gonna call 500 miles out to sea when something goes wrong? Couldn't keep the old girl going without this forum!
For that matter-by way of payback; if anyone else wants to tune thier own rig, the Loos gauge is expensive-almost $300. I can lend it out to folks who would like to borrow it so long as they ship it back. just shoot me a PM.
Jim
If this is redundent to your knowledge I apoligize but if you are interested in improving performance there are several more adjustments to consider. I am not sure I would want the backstay overtight unless you sail in heavy air most of the time. The 365 is rather underpowered. In light air you would want to induce headstay sag as much as possible gradually reducing sag as the wind builds. Coincidentally this also moves the mast head forward slightly. Unless you install a means to easily adjust the backstay then you must take a stab at a compromise. You could adjust the turnbuckles on the backstay according to conditions thay day and if that is too much trouble you can make a few adjustments according to sailing season as different seasons offer different average conditions. I have not tried it yet but you could also attach two snatch blocks shackeled together to the split backstay and a block and tackle as a backstay adjuster. When you pull down it squeezes the two stays together which tightens the rig.
Another easy adjustment is the vang. Many do not realized the effect on the rig a vang can have as well as to the sail.
Unless you are a very talented driver I would try and have a slight weather helm and especially avoid lee helm as that can cause a dangerous situation of the boat driving down when you want to feather up.
Flat is fast. If you are burying the rail while going up wind you are going sideways. Vang on and ease the main and feather up. If still overpowered ease the vang to allow air to spill off the top. Unless your boat has a traveller you may have to help the boom travel down with a push. You next move should be to move the genoa car aft which allows the foot of the sail to be trimmed in flat but spill excess air off the head of the sail. (In light air move the car forward of base setting to induce more shape in the sail. ) After all this and you are still overpowered reduce sail.
Finally I do not believe the mizzen is particularly effective going upwind. Where it shines is reaching or perhaps in a storm with the main put away. Because of this I have choosen to remove it from my boat which has made a world of difference in the cockpit for entertaining and reduced weight aloft.
Finally had her out in some good wind-ideal really-15mph and flat seas. With the backstay at 10% of breaking strenth there was little head stay sag. Full main and 135 rolled all the way out. I could lock the wheel and hold a close hauled course with just a touch of rudder. Had the genoa car pulled all the way back which seems to have helped reduce the weather helm to the point where the helm was very light.
Winds piked up to a steady 20 gusting to 25 and I rolled the jib up a fair bit-maybe to a 90, rolled up a some main and the boat was hitting 7.6 kts with more weather helm. but easily managed by the wheel pilot.
Love fall sailing!