North Americans pictures - link enclosed

Would someone in the know please comment on the position & rigging of the upper boom relative to the mast head on some of the boats (e.g., #15)? Thanks.
 
Would someone in the know please comment on the position & rigging of the upper boom relative to the mast head on some of the boats (e.g., #15)? Thanks.
You can see that it was pretty windy at least some of the time. Under those conditions, lighter weight Sunfish racers often prefer to rig the sail differently. This used to be known as the Jens rig (after Jens Hookanson who thought of this first, several decades ago)
If you use the Search feature on this forum with Jens as the keyword, you can find a lot more about the 'how' and 'why'.
There are now several modifications of the 'original' Jens rig and some of the discussion on the Forum was about the newer versions of the 'Jens'.
 
It looks like the "Jens Rig" which is a way to de-power the sunfish rig in heavy air. I've never used it but here's a video about it:


And a brief quote describing it better than I can:

The “Jens” rig, dubbed for its creator Jens Hookanson, is unique to the Sunfish. He devised a method of adjusting the point where the upper spar meets the mast while simultaneously keeping the sail entire sail plan low to the deck. The longer length of upper spar, above the mast, allows for more flexibility and better control as the wind pipes up. It is a popular, even necessary, innovation for lightweights to this day. Hookanson proved it’s worth, winning the heavy-weather 1976 North Americans as a lightweight.
 
Thanks for the responses. I've heard the term "Jens rig" but never looked into it. My solution to heavy winds is to take a passenger along for the extra mass, but then I'm not racing... Looks like it'd be fun to experiment with that rig.
 

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