Rigging over tight? To loose?

[Cheechako]

Originally Posted by OrangeCrush

That was my plan, will do. Do you have a brand in mind? I saw Lanacote recommended on a different forum.

Although a fan of Lanolin, I think you will find Lanocote wont provide much help in turnbuckles that are tight, not a great lube. Clean them and see if they free up first.

[knockabout]

captain cook didn't have stainless rig tension challenges and seemed to handle a few sea miles / I've noticed quite a few modern sailboats with strong rope rigging and soft shackles all over the place / after asking what's that stuff lasting like in the sun the answers are usually going all right so far and they did seem very tight / modern production rigs have engineer tested rig tension / diy rigs settings are adequate tension to keep the rig up under all conditions / most of us shorten sail to keep the tv ariel out of the water / also keeps the pressure off the stays

[daletournier]

Originally Posted by S/V Alchemy

By "shifters", do you mean turnbuckles or bottle screws (UK?). Yes, give me a three-foot rod and I will tighten the turnbuckles on a 300-foot circa 1900 grain carrier.

If your shrouds and stays are that large, the cost of the right Loos gauge is a fraction of the cost of a snapped mast or masts. Proceed accordingly. This is no place to guess.

Sorry, "shifters" is Australian for adjustable spanners (wrenches).

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[daletournier]

Basically ive tuned it this way. Everything hand tight. Used a halyard and my eye to get it straight. Started with caps, tightened very tight (for me) with two 12 inch wrenches. Then moved to forward lowers, intermediates and aft lowers. Did the aft lowers as tight as the forwards being a inmast furler. The tightest are the caps. No prepend, apparently none should be put in this mast.

I get the impression most tension by feel at dock then go sailing.....its the interpretation of feel that varys.

And the appropriate loos gauge is not $250 over here, try 1k plus.

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[hafa]

Originally Posted by Stumble

There absolutly is not one...% of breaking strength tells you nothing...On the same boat in different winds shrouds tension can vary from a low of about 2% to a high of 18%.

% of breaking strength in the context in which I referred to it is a function of the scale on the Loos gauge (please see image below). I thought that this term would be more easily understood than a scale number; obviously I was mistaken.

For me, attaining accurate, objective data from a gauge while tuning dockside is far better than "gee, that feels right". It seems that from the consensus here that recording gauge data, followed by subsequent correlated data from observations under sail is the best methodology for determining the appropriate adjustment numbers (be they %oBS or SCALE) for a given rig.

[neilpride]

Originally Posted by daletournier

Basically ive tuned it this way. Everything hand tight. Used a halyard and my eye to get it straight. Started with caps, tightened very tight (for me) with two 12 inch wrenches. Then moved to forward lowers, intermediates and aft lowers. Did the aft lowers as tight as the forwards being a inmast furler. The tightest are the caps. No prepend, apparently none should be put in this mast.

I get the impression most tension by feel at dock then go sailing.....its the interpretation of feel that varys.

And the appropriate loos gauge is not $250 over here, try 1k plus.

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Yeah ....

[daletournier]

Actually I'm wrong regarding loos gauge , I can get one for about $400 BUT they only do upto 3/8 anyway.

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[thomm225]

Originally Posted by knockabout

captain cook didn't have stainless rig tension challenges

The guys back in the day were much better sailors than we are today.

If you get your rig ball park, as a cruiser you should be okay.

I have about an inch of prebend on my mast. My stays are at around 440 all around except the forward lowers which are at 550

I set this 4 years ago.

Leeward gets a but slack etc........

It ain't rocket science but you can make it complicated if you want as with anything

[StuM]

Originally Posted by Cheechako

Generally I like to get it all pretty snug and the mast straight, then go sailing. In maybe 15 knots of wind I like to have a touch of slack in the leeward rigging, but not flopping around, and of course, the mast straight.
You will often find in 15+ going to weather that the top 1/2 of the mast is bending forward, you need to adjust this out with the shrouds also.

I prefer angle of heel to wind strength as an indication of when the leeward shrouds should start to slacken. (Except in a cat! )

Around 15-20°?

[double u]

...never mind how tight or lose your standing rigging is, inevitably you will have people grab it, jerk it & say "I wonder you haven't lost your mast so far, with the rigging being so tight/lose!"
& anecdotal evidence I can contribute from a kraut with a Levrier de Mer 16: when the people from the yard set up the rig after the launch they tightened the leeward shrouds of the rod-rigging with 2' long spanners as hard as they could. (& with this setup they had made it all the way to Fiji, where they told me this...)
...now make what you want of it...
(& of course you NEVER tighten a nicely loaded up turnbuckle until you want to damage the thread!)

[hamburking]

Originally Posted by donradcliffe

Once you have done a dock tune, you need to take the boat out sailing where you can get a 25 degree heel. After a bit of time on each tack, note whether the leeward shrouds are loose enough to flop around. If they are you need to tighten things up.

Excellent advice. But I would use caution adjusting the rig while sailing. Make small adjustments, then check, repeat.

The side stays should not have any slack when on the lee side with a good breeze.

Also, different rigs need different tension. My Hunter 35.5 had a tapered mast and high tension rig...very different from my other, older boats.

If you really want to do it right, consult the boats original owners manual and use a Loos Tension Gauge.

And finally, the rig is like a guitar, it needs retuning all the time. Always keep and eye on it, and make sure your turnbuckles are wired...they can, and will undo themselves.