Alan, you don't mention rig set-up. We tighten the rig to about 2000lbs upper and lower, if i think it will be really gusty I may shorten the headstay an inch from max, this seems to allow better control of headstay tension and let's us flatten the entrance of the blade a bit better. (shorten the headstay BEFORE you tighten the shrouds!!!) We often sail with 1200lbs crew, and some of our crew won't hike, so we hurt in the heavy stuff too.
Mark, you must have a later boat with 3/8" shrouds - according to my Loos gauge (and the tuning guide, by the way) the max tension on our 1981 model with the 1/4" shrouds is ~2000lbs. Am I missing something? Most of the local J/29's use the 3000lb range I think, they all have 3/8" rigging.
John in Halifax
