Tension

[E.L.Green]

Nowhere in my manual does it give me any specs on how tight the rigging should be. A friend of mine who races tuned them up to 40lbs upper and i want to say 15 lower shroud. I have a Santana 2023 with swept shrouds and no backstay. The mast is straight and sails well, i just want to make sure im not putting any undue stress on the rigging or deck. Thanks in advance

[E.L.Green]

also it is 1x19 rigging

[wolfaroo]

an expert rigger on the south coast of england who has been doing it for many years always tightens until he is just about able to pull each shroud/stay 1 inch with 1 finger (perpendicular to stay)...

mind you he obviously had the knack for it! But still gives a good quick guide.

[four winds]

That's interesting. I spent all day yesterday adjusting my rigging for the first time. An issue with the mast step had caused it to slacken over time, so I executed a temporary fix on the step and started researching rig tuning online.

Using advice about tension based on wire size, not boat model, I began adjusting to achieve a tension of 1000lbs on the uppers, 850 on the lowers (fronts slightly more and rears slightly less), 1200 the backstay, and 1400 on the forestay. I ended up at about 90% of these numbers because some turnbuckles were all in because the mast has shortened itself on the step due to corrosion.

Feels good to me compared to other masthead rig sloops at the dock. I asked permission to put my gauge another boat and it showed similar figures.

Why are your figures so low? Have I made a mistake?

Haven't been out yet after the adjustment.

[four winds]

wolfaroo, I like to develop a feel for adjustments as well, but I'm learning here.

However, the one inch displacement roughly applies to my results unless I really put my weight into it. Using my arm only and flexing moderately I think I'm in the ballpark.

Certainly much better than it was.

This is from a pdf that I read yesterday.

[E.L.Green]

he used a tool and pulled laterally, my boat is only 23 ft

[conachair]

some light reading here - </title> <link rel="STYLESHEET" type="text/css" href="_styles/selden.css"> <script language="javascript"> var openwindow = null; function showLoginForm() { openwindow = document.getElementById("loginForm"); openwindow.style.display = "block"; } funct

[four winds]

Originally Posted by E.L.Green

he used a tool and pulled laterally, my boat is only 23 ft

I suspected this before, but I believe the numbers 40 and 15 are the tension gauge scale reference numbers. Which are then used to convert to tension in pounds based on wire size.

On my Loos Model B the conversion chart is on the back of the gauge, and as an example, 40 on a 1/4 inch wire is 1060 lbs. My chart is unreadable at the lower numbers due to wear.

Could be rigging that is at only 40 lbs. on some boats, I'm not experienced enough to know. But having taught statics at university level I don't see why there would be such a wide diversity of tensions from boat to boat.

[E.L.Green]

so its at 35 upper which equals 360 lbs and 10 lower which is about 150. i called WD Schock and NO ONE can tell me the specs for the rigging so i guess for now this is what it will stay at. thank you for the info everyone!