Ranger rigging
Hi, Pleased to see you want to restore some R-23s. Excellent design by Gary Mull, a really "ahead of the curve" N.A. of his times. Arvel Gentry is a VG source for you. I visited the Jensen-Ranger yards several times in the '70s and I recollect many boats were semi-custom as far as rigging went. Buyers could specify what hardware they wanted. Arvel's was very custom. I think some dealers had the boats shipped without spars and other hardware which was installed by them locally. This means that there is not really one standard other than adhering to Gary Mulls specification regarding basic rig dimensions. There were two rigs, a standard (or short rig) with an I=27.6'and a tall rig with an I=30.0'The P dims were correspondingly P=24.0'short and P=25.8'tall. Other dims J=9.7' and E=9.2' were the same for both rigs. The headstay and cap shrouds used 3/16"wire, the lowers and backstay used 5/32". I have this directly from my original owners manual (1976). Some hardware such as Mariner blocks and track is NLA. Shaefer still makes OEM type hardware. Genoa track was usually 1". Winches were usually Barrient or Barlow. Mine has Barrient # 10s for primary. They were (IMHO)too small and soon got replaced. They made good secondaries. Some boats were equipped for spinakers and others not. Mine was. My original sails (Main and jib) were made by Buchan Sails (Seattle)in '76. Give me a fax # and I'll send you some info. Regards, Howard.
