Bryan,

The jib halyard tensioner is more for controlling your luff tension on the jib. The aft-lowers control the amount of bend in the lower section of the mast which in turn controls the shape of the main sail. There is some relation to the forestay tension when you start applying the backstay, but really they (aft-lowers and jib halyard tensioner) serve different purposes.

I think I was one of the first boats (Exocet way back when) that tried the jib halyard tensioner. I still think it is a great advantage to have on the boat. It allows you to change gears quicker and not need to put the jib halyard on the winch. In fact you can eliminate the need for the jib halyard winch all together. As you round the leeward mark you just bounce the jib halyard at the mast and then you can fine tune it with the halyard tensioner. If the wind goes light it is reall easy to ease out the tensioner rather than opening the halyard clutch.

The aft lowers depend a lot on the age and cut of your mainsail. As the main gets older you likely need less tension on the aft lowers since your main gets more round and you need the bend on the mast to flatten ot the main. Newer mains are built flatter so you need more aft lower tension so you don't invert your main when you apply a lot of back stay.

Hope this helps.

-Jason

:: Hi all,
::
:: Does having a jib halyard tensioner limit or even
:: eliminate the need to get the aft lower tension dialed
:: in for the wind strength?
::
:: thanks
::
:: Bryan