Do you ever do much with your jib cunningham??
Well, for a lot of us it’s all a bit of a fiddle and we leave it alone. But is it all that difficult?? First off, there is a requirement in the rules that you have at least 100mm between the tack and the deck. So you need a sense of where that measurement is.
You are looking to have just enough tension in the cunningham that the wrinkles in the luff just about disappear. Then take that string – loop it three times between the halyard and the tack, then up through the little clamcleat there. Just give it a good tug into the cleat – don’t put a security knot in it for fear of snagging a spinnaker sheet in it. Just leave the clean tail of the string.
The example in the photo was done by a god….
(Double Click to enlarge the photo)
The Flying Fifteen Blog 
That’s fine for getting 4″ distance accurate but not necessarily for achieving the correct tension, as this might end up at 3 1/2″ or 4 1/2″.
My suggestion , (and it’s only a suggestion!) is set the 4″ as described above and then take the genoa down and rehoist it UPSIDE DOWN!! Stand around for a few moment whilst all the smart bottoms (there might be children reading this) come up to you, wetting themselves with the pleasure of being able to tell you what a plonker you are, only to have the wind taken out of their sails (pun definately intended) when you explain that quite obviously you are adjusting the tension of the luff using the lanyard at the top of the sail, thus retaining an accurate 4″ at the tack. Tape the lanyard up, as once set you shouldn’t need to do it again.
But don’t forget to take the sail down again and rehoist or you really will look silly as you unfurl on the start line!!
Ian Preston
FF3293
Nice to see we seem to be doing something right
This posting made us think of that Jib Trimming book, which we did get and found quite instructive. One of the key points of that book is adjustment of the jib cunningham in real(ish) time as part of the sail trimming.
So…. anyone got any bright ideas how to incorporate a jib cunningham adjustment into a Harken furler?
Martin and Alison Stainsby
FF3912