OK, so I thought I would be clever and practice rigging my sail for the first time in the back yard so that i didn't embarrass myself in public. I am glad I did because i realised quickly that i really, REALLY suck at it.

Firstly, the battens in the sail all twisted under the mast and i couldn't get them to straighten out no matter how hard i tried. The luff was also twisted around the mast at first - this improved but not entirely after trying to downhaul the sail... i also shredded my hands trying to put enough tension on the downhaul rope. How do you people do this??? Even if i could get enough tension into the downhaul, my hands would be so sore that i would have to pack up straight away because i wouldn't be able to hold onto the boom anyway.

I eventually managed to get the boom onto the mast - but it was tricky because the luff of the sail was pushed under the mast and pretty much touching it (from the battens pushing it under) and even after adjusting the outhaul the luff was still not straightened out and the battens were still pushing under the mast. I'm pretty sure that's not meant to happen...

I am well aware that this is an operator issue and not the equipment... I think I had the mast and extension at the right lengths etc, the sail calls for a 370/17 mast (mine is 370) and the luff length is 388 so I had the extension set to 20cm (it was that or 15cm). Boom was 150cm and I had that right too I think.

Any tips that anyone can provide would be much appreciated... I definitely want to get this right before making a complete goose of myself in public... thanks in advance