changing the angle of the mast

How does one go about changing the angle of the mast, I assume tilting it back ,to avoid the pitch poling I get in bigger winds and bigger waves? The question is how do I figure what a good angle is? But I don't want to slow the boat down either. I have a jib. the boat is a 1997 model I believe.

trial and error, or go and measure the fast guys boat next to you.

There are two main limiting factors

1) The length of your forestay & shrouds. This can be overcome by using longer/different adjuster plates, or in extreme cases, new wires can be made.

2) The cut of the sail & the size of your mainsheet blocks will limit the amount of rake you can carry. If you rake the mast back too far, you won't be able to tension the mainsheet (and thus the leach of the sail) enough for proper shape.

I don't have any experience on the Wave, but I would say if you pull the mainsheet in as tight as you can and you have less than 1" of gap between the mainsheet blocks, then you are raked back as far as you can be (unless you get smaller main blocks or have the sail re-cut).

sm