Are the original genoa furler tangs from Amel straight or bent?

After a passage from the Chesapeake to Antigua in November, Aletes showed a 90 degree bend in the genoa hold down tang. This clearly looked wrong. After taking up the tension on the halyard and removing the tang, it sprang back to about a 45 degree bend.  We presumed based upon this topic thread that insufficient tension on the passage and pounding seas caused the permanent bend.

We straightened it and reinstalled. The reinstall did not fit well, so we turned the unit around so that the bolt L faced aft rather than forward as original. This configuration put a slight forward bend to the tang, putting it rather close to the forestay turnbuckle and not parallel to the forestay. This still didn't look quite correct.

Looking at the tang on a 3 year younger SM the tang was bent at approx. 45 degree as was ours and as pictured by Ocean Bird on Dec 26, 2015 and in the same place. The owner of the younger SM, who owned from new, said the bend was always there.

My question is this. Is the 45 degree bend in the tang by design? Is the clevis connection to the base plate designed to allow rotation as the tang flexes. There is some potential rationale. With the bend, the tang is parallel to the forestay and acts as a spring shock absorber for the vertical loads of the furling system in a pounding sea. It seems not a coincidence that on the 3 SMs that I have looked at for this, the bends are at about the same place and amount.

Mike Ondra

Aletes SM#240