The Starting Point - Masts and Sails

So you've been given an 18ft skiff by the 18 footers club and you are about to start a campaign. Congrats, you just entered one of the most competitive, full-on classes in the world, let the fun begin!

More likely than not, you have received an older boat and been given a set of sails which may or may not be falling apart.

Yout taks in the first couple of weekends is to talk to the other teams and organisers and find out who is getting what new sails, and who will be giving away sails that are in better condition than your's.

This is a part of the class no-one tells you about. The scavenging, the wheeling and dealing trying to land the best hand-me down gear.  Every year there is a budget for new hulls, new masts, new sails, etc. Teams can supplement with their own funds to get up to 3 new sails, or 4 if the team did the overseas regattas during the off-season.

So you get a decent condition masts and two sets of sails, everything just fits and you're off to compete against the best of the fleet, right? Wrong!

The Rigs

You will soon find that no boat is made equal. The mast is not going to quite fit straight onto the boat, and you might even have to wind off/on some of the turnbuckles past the limit to get it to fit. And this way you will be introduced to the wonderful world of swaging. The club has all the tools, and you can order the parts from 316 Shop and get the club to pay for them, and you're off trying to figure out which is the correct length, and did you put the wrong die in.

The starting point is to get the rake right. You get two bits of tape-measure, put one against the gunwall, and the other against the foremost corner of the hull (see diagram for reference)

You should be joing both measruing tapes at the numbers below, and this should hit either mid-mast or a bit in front, but not beyond the edge of the mast:
#1 Rig:
Front: 8000 cm
Aft: 7640 cm

#2 Rig:
Front: 7640 cm
Aft: 7040cm.

Once you've measured this, you can then swage the t-ball of the forestay in, and look at the length with the eye swage at the bottom. The obvious issue is that if you cut it so it just sits inside the eye swage, the mast will move back when you release the boat-breaker and you will miss the mark.
So the best way is to use the old forestay and take a measurement between the forestay fitting on the deck, and the fitting on the mast when you can just about put the pin in. You the release the boat-breaker with the forestay in place and re-measure. The difference in distances should be applied to the new forestay, and you should be spot on.

Minus the t-ball stretch...

Unfortunately, t-balls are known to  stretch a little after you put load on them. Once I find out exaclty how much, I'll post it in here and let you know.