I prefer a Cunningham for a couple of reasons:
It is easy to adjust when lead to the cockpit, so you tend to use it more than halyard tension. If crewed, the main trimmer can do it as part of his job. If short handed it is just easier than messing with halyards. It is usually a multipart tackle, so the effort needed to get a proper tension on the sail is less. The line is much shorter than your halyard, combined with less load on the line due to the multipart tackle, means less stretch to deal with. And a Cunningham is not so much “useless” when reefed as “unnecessary”. After all, if you are reefed you are pulling a lot of tension on the sail to flatten it in higher wind – or there would be not much point in reefing. Rick Brass Imzadi C&C 38 mk 2 la Belle Aurore C&C 25 mk1 Washington, NC From: CnC-List [mailto:cnc-list-boun...@cnc-list.com] On Behalf Of David Paine via CnC-List Sent: Sunday, January 25, 2015 6:33 PM To: cnc-list@cnc-list.com Subject: Stus-List Cunningham Hi All, I'm buying a new mainsail and I am going to ask a ridiculous-sounding question. Do you have a Cunningham grommet in your mainsail? I do not in my current sail but that is because Hood made the sail with a jack line (or lace line) which serves the purpose. My new sail definitely won't have a jack-line. Some adjust luff tension with the halyard, others use a separate Cunningham grommet with a many part tackle (or lead the Cunningham line to a winch) to set the luff tension. My sailmaker has an opinion but my question is, which do you use? The Cunningham is useless when reefed, of course. Cheers, David
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