As far forward as it will go......

Basically this is right if you have any sort of Winder, and it is generally right for pretty much everything else.

(Severns are different apparently, and conventional wisdom (ie, Pete Bond) says that they prefer their mast foot a bit further back. The Severn I sailed went pretty quick and suffered from weather helm, and I reckon that it would have benefitted from a forward step. But I didn't try it, so I can't say for sure that it would have gone as quick if I had. Further forward = less weather helm, but what's it gonna do to your boatspeed. Should improve it of course, but will it ?)

On my 2001 white Winder, I have taken this to its logical extreme. Normally you have a pin in the mast-foot track at both ends of the heel tenon, so the mast can't slide backwards or forwards. But the front pin stops the mast from being as far forward as it could be. Soooo, I took it out, nudged the mast forwards until it just kissed the front tank, and then drilled through one of the pin holes and through the tenon. Then took the mast out and took a hacksaw to the tenon, converting the hole into a slot. Now I have a pin through the tenon, but nothing in front of it. It's worth mentioning that a lot of the UK hotshots haven't bothered doing this, so maybe it wasn't worth the effort, but it's done me no harm.

Just bear in mind though - every time you move the mast foot, you have to adjust the rake and the pre-bend to compensate, so you need to be pretty happy about setting up the mast to do this.

Enjoy

Back...