The best way to tell where the max mast bend is by looking at your main sail. You will develop a wrinkle from the clew up the sail towards the middle of the mast. When you start to see that wrinkle you know that more backstay is not going to help you.

Looking up the mast it shouldn't be more than 2-3 mast column widths when on full backstay. I have never heard of failure of our masts because of too much backstay. But, you should definitely release the backstay when you can to keep from inducing any pre-bend into the mast.

Hope that helps...

-Jason

:: How far can the mast be bent without risk of damage? Are
:: there any numbers? Maybe Inches of displacement sighting
:: up the mast or ammount of reduction in backstay length
:: from no bend to max, or something else?

:: Thanks