Chesapeake is truly wonderful. September, maybe? Fingers crossed. The great thing about our DS's is that we can get into places that the big boats and big stinkpots can't. Lot's of wonderful sailing.
In the meantime, wow, an affordable Loos Gauge, congratulations. I believe North Sails recommends that the port and starboard shroud be set at 300 lbs and the headstay at 250 lbs. Which is crazy tight. National Champ Dave Keran also sets his rig very tight at 200-210 at the forestay and 300-320 at the shrouds. On the other hand, Doyle Sails say 50 lbs:
https://web.archive.org/web/20150315153946/http://www.doylesails.com/onedesign/daysailer/tuning.htmland Dieball (over here):
https://web.archive.org/web/20190423161718/http://www.dieballsailing.com/content/tuning/2012%20Day%20Sailer%20Tuning%20Guide.pdfsays: " Forestay tension should be 240-250 lbs while the shrouds will be 350-400 lbs depending on the overall stiffness of both your boat and mast" Wow! Personally, I still think that strumming a Low E or an A is good enough, but enjoy experimenting with the Loos.
Why is tension important? Mast prebend, how much your mast is bent "standing still." The sailmaker should have put some curve into your luff - that's to compensate for the prebend, but actually to give you a nice draft in light air that can be flattened out with more bend in heavy air. You want to match that curve with your prebend, which you do by tensionsing the stays. Each sail and sailmaker is different, so it's a trial and error process to find correct tension values. To the point, look at what Dieball and North have to say about how much rake and prebend you should have based on the position of your mast butt. Dieball explains it all best, IMHO. Try that out, see how much tension you need to get enough prebend into your sail to eliminate any wrinkles when testing on land, no wind. That's your startpoint. Then go sailing! Log what happens if you tighten/loosen a bit, etc, etc. Before you know it, you'll be racing in the Nationals!