Rick has sent me a personal email and I have asked him to call me tonight. Chasemixon, thank you for the reference but gents here is a simple way to do this and I hope this can be easily referenced for the 23.5, 19, 26, 240, 25(newer model with no back stay), 260, 270 and the Hunter 27 Edge:
1. Mast up with no boom attached but with roller furling/jib on. Make sure of no
overhead obstruction like wires and trees with boat pointed into wind on flat surface.
2. Loosen all shrouds and reverse trianglular wires (run from base of mast to spreader)
3. Adjust forestay if needed for correct rake.
4. Barely hand tighten upper or outer shrouds. Using main halyard, run a tape up all the
way and measure side to side lengths. Tighten so the top of the mast is centered.
Tighten upper or outer shrouds equally until you have prebend with top of mast
backwards until the tape or line attached to the main halyard with some weight added
is 3-4 inches away from the back of the mast where the boom attaches ( boat will
have to be level and suggest on a no wind day with boat pointed into any wind). Then
stop.
5. Go to lower shrouds next. Look up the mast with eyeball against the mast specifically
looking at the sail track. If sail track is curved, correct by tightening lower shrouds
accordingly. Then equally turn the lower shrouds to reduce the prebend to about
1 1/2 to 2 inches.
6. Go back to upper or outer shrouds to check tightness. Although some say use loos
gauage, I found if I stood behind the mast and take my right index finger pulling the
upper or outer shroud without moving my hand, if I could pull it 1 1/2 to 2 inches
inward with my my finger, the tension was pretty well near the mark.
7. As for the reverse diagonals, I hand tightened those so to a point it was tight but not
over tightened and rechecked the mast so the sail track was straight. If slighltly bent
to the right or starboard, you have to adjust that turnbuckle of the reverse triangle
on the left or port side.
8. I would retighten if the jib or forestay is a little floppy but be cautious. Go sailing
and readjust if necessary.
This pretty much worked well for me without having to use a guage. Others will disagree but I did over a thousand plus masts using this method.
