Battens poking into the Luff sleeve

[adywind]

Honestly Rgomez that rig doesn't look good to me. It seems to be over-tensioned but at the same time the head has very little twist. With so much downhaul it should have been completely collapsed with the leech curling all the way to the clew. I suspect this mast may be way to stiff for the sail. I can't be 100% sure but the way its rigged it might feel twitchy on the water. Does the sail has a adjustable top cap -if yes release some. If not release downhaul and outhaul and try to create some shape in the middle and some more twist at the head if possible . Don't try to put the battens in place with too much outhaul -it's counterproductive-pull no more then 4cm regardless where the battens are.
PS: if it's a older pre 2000 sail I might be completely wrong. Those sails don't have leach twist. Well the most important thing is on water feel. If it feels right then it doesn't matter how it looks .

[techno900]

Ok, I said the sail looks "pretty good", but I should have said "pretty good under the circumstances" I doubt that it can be tuned much better since it's on a too stiff mast. Few RAF sails look good lying in the beach, since they need wind to fill in the shape. If I am giving advice on the beach to someone like rgomez, I am going to push down on the sail above the boom to give it some shape to see if it is too flat or too full. The batten to mast position usually gives you a good indication of proper tuning on an old sail not designed to have a loose leach and twist, but until you give it some shape, it's hard to tell.

With that said, It's always a good idea to fine tune with downhaul and outhaul to see if there can be improved performance.

[rgomez]

Im not sure if its a pre 2000 sail...I can try it on a friends 420 mast and check.

I do feel the mast may be too stiff....I had to put an insane amount of outhaul just to get the boom batten properly..

[adywind]

Wait a minute. I presumed that you've pulled all the downhaul /no distance between sail gromet/pulley and extension pulley but you may have not. If there is indeed distance then pull more DH with some tool and your foot against the extension base.
I'm convinced now that this is too little DH and too much OH regardless what you think. The mast is too stiff for the sail and its dificult to DH, but you can try some more /or find a 430 mast/.

[rgomez]

Thats the maximum I could downhaul using my harness but if I used a winch I could probably go a few cms more.

Ill try this out with the North 7.3...The mast is suitable for it.

[swchandler]

Years ago when I was using cambered race sails, downhauling with a hand cleat finally got to me by screwing up the alignment of my back. Picking up a Rig-it-Right downhaul tool made the job super easy, and my back problem vanished.

Years later after going with Euro-pin universals, I picked up a Chinook winch. It's even easier. Do yourself a favor and buy a Chinook winch. A great one time investment that makes downhauling easy, effortless and exact in execution.

[uwindsurf]

[jingebritsen]

first pic of the smaller sail and op's words indicate too much out haul. that bulge going from tack foot to leech above the grommet is an instantaneous tell.

if the skin tension at the boom near where the harness lines is nil, the there's too much out haul for down hall.

if the sail has lots of d/h tension yet won't spill the leech, mast to stiff. not much tension and way too much spill, soft mast. esp horrid, lots of tension, flat as a board sail. matching an old FS mast to this 5.9 is not much of an issue.

north sail needs number 3 batten behind mast. count battens from the top. i suspect op is not matching numbers on sail vs ACTUAL number on mast with extension. chinook is notorious at mislabeling their extensions.