How tight should shrouds be?

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Chris Bogle

Chris Bogle

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Mar 6, 2012
41
Oday 22 Penetanguishene
I have been agonizing over this subject all summer. All the research I have done tells me that the tension on standing rigging is very subjective. Although my shrouds appear to be as tight as I think they should be without tearing the chain plates out of the deck, in a 12 mph wind with a fair amount of heel my leeward shrouds slacken up a bit. Is that normal?
 
fireman416

fireman416

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Sep 6, 2011
82
Oday 322 Hawkestone YC Lake Simcoe
Chris Bogle said:
I have been agonizing over this subject all summer. All the research I have done tells me that the tension on standing rigging is very subjective. Although my shrouds appear to be as tight as I think they should be without tearing the chain plates out of the deck, in a 12 mph wind with a fair amount of heel my leeward shrouds slacken up a bit. Is that normal?
Click to expand
The other week while sailing I noticed that mine were doing the same. When I checked them at anchor they seemed good and tight...
 
RichBone

RichBone

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Sep 25, 2008
992
Oday 25 Gibraltar
It's okay for the leeward to be a little slack. These boats weren't designed to be high tensioned rigs.
 
T

tkaser3210

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Dec 10, 2010
43
Hunter H26 South Haven, MI
Do some searching on this site; there are some very good postings about rig tuning. What some sailors forget is that the standing rigging not only holds the mast up, but shapes it as well. Tightening parts of the rigging is easy, but shaping the mast requires some attention to detail.
 
the_alpine

the_alpine

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Jul 12, 2011
148
Oday 302 st pete
Your leeward shrouds should be partly slack. Part of tensioning the rig is taking her out in 8-10 kts and adding a few extra turns on the leeward turnbuckles on each tack.
 
Indysailor

Indysailor

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Oct 10, 2009
1,100
Catalina 27 3657 Lake Monroe
The manual that I have (came with the original Neil Pryde sail packet) is not very exact. First, straighten the mast using the outer shrouds.
To tune, outer shrouds should be a few turns past hand tight, inner shrouds should be hand tight, not slack, but not tense either.
Not nearly as complete as what Stu has, which I'm going to use from now on.
Thanks Stu!
 
Stu Jackson

Stu Jackson

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Feb 26, 2004
23,360
Catalina 34 224 Maple Bay, BC, Canada
ac, good idea, but after thinking about it, it just is too hard on this particular forum to do that. Unless Phil starts a new "section" that includes "Links to Popular Topics" or something like it.

On our C34 website, we did three things: 1) we started a wiki which captured over 20+ years of experience and articles; 2) we have copied all the Mainsheet magazine tech articles for the last 25 years and make them available to our IA members with a password; 3) I started a "101 Topics" on our MB because i got tired of re-typing the same answers to the same questions (http://c34.org/bbs/index.php/topic,6437.0.html)

But, like the "Musing with Maine Sail" the topics fill up rather quickly and the "Top Ten Greatest Hits" become the Top 5,478 Hits and disappear from view all too soon.

We also have had many, many years of experience with our boats, and some still find it hard to "navigate" the website. I kiddingly joke that if they can't handle the website how do they run their boats? :confused: http://c34.org/bbs/index.php/topic,5260.0.html

OTOH, one of the nice things about this and most other forums is that they become a "community" and it's always nice to see new folks and help them out. I find two things work really well: providing links and actually answering questions, pretty much the way you do so well.
 
Joe11688

Joe11688

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Jan 24, 2005
4,881
Oday 222 Dighton, Ma.
Chris Bogle said:
I have been agonizing over this subject all summer. All the research I have done tells me that the tension on standing rigging is very subjective. Although my shrouds appear to be as tight as I think they should be without tearing the chain plates out of the deck, in a 12 mph wind with a fair amount of heel my leeward shrouds slacken up a bit. Is that normal?
Click to expand
This is normal Chris. How tight should your stays be? That's a good question. If you have a Loos Gauge and your stays are 1/8", you have a choice of scales from 15 to 30. 15 being 120 Lbs and 30=260 Lbs.
You want your lower stays a little less tight than your upper stays.
I think I have my uppers set at 15 on my boat. My lowers are 5/32" and my uppers are 1/8" so it's really hard to gauge my lowers.

The gauge is the way to go because if you're going by a number, you know that the tension is going to be even and the mast will be straight. The gauge is pricey though.

I very seldom ever use my gauge because I have a quick release lever on my backstay under my turnbuckle. Consequently, I never have a need to adjust any of my stays.
If you do a lot of trailering, a quick release lever on your backstay is the way to go, only if it will work on your boat. It works on my boat and allows me to connect and disconnect my fore stay even with a roller furler. I use a press button quick pin on my fore stay.
http://www.csjohnson.com/marinecatalog/00031.htm
 
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