Tartan 3400, Owner'S Manual, Page: 37 / 75

master OM Tartan 3400 2012.doc
Page 37 of 69
4.4
Tuning While Sailing
Select a day with a steady 8 to 12 knot breeze and reasonably flat sea. Put the boat on starboard tack,
close hauled. Sight up the luff groove of the mast. If the mast seems to fall off to leeward at the
spreaders, luff up slightly and tighten the starboard lower shroud as necessary. Put the boat back on the
wind and check the spar again, adjusting as necessary. When the mast appears straight, bring the boat
about and do the same on the port side.
Check the following carefully:
When the upper shrouds are at optimum tension and when at about 15 to 20 degrees of heel, the leeward
rigging should look slack. This is quite appropriate and should never be tightened. When close hauled
under genoa and main, the forestay may appear quite sagged. Tensioning the backstay will reduce the
amount of sag, but the sag itself can never be eliminated. As a rule of thumb, the maximum static
backstay pressure should never exceed one quarter of the backstay breaking strength.
If your boat is brand new, the rigging may seat and stretch to the extent that tuning from scratch again
will become necessary in a matter of weeks. However, after this initial working-in period, you will find
that the rig tends to hold its tune for considerably long periods of time. After becoming used to the feel of
the boat, you may wish to either increase or decrease the amount of weather helm. Any sailboat, when
sailing up wind, should have a slight tendency to "round up" or head into the wind if the helm is let go. If
you find it typically difficult to hold the boat off the wind, the boat is carrying too much weather helm.
This can be alleviated by reducing rake, which will move the center of effort of the sailplan further
forward. Conversely, if you find the boat tends to fall off when sailing upwind and you must constantly
push her to weather, then the boat carries lee helm and the rig will require more rake.
With constant tuning as the season progresses, your boats performance will improve. The boat will feel
more comfortable to sail.
You will find that tuning is a bit of an art and you will begin to notice subtle changes in the behavior and
response of your boat as you make subtle changes in tuning. The important thing to remember is to go
about the process in a slow and orderly fashion. To record the details of the tuning and re-tuning
procedures as well as the results achieved will provide you a better understanding of the rig and will serve
as a useful reference for rigging the boat on subsequent occasions.