Hello, I have a few observations regarding my standing rigging that have me puzzled.
First, when I bought my boat, a 1975, I immediately replaced the lower forward and aft stays as they has fish hooks. I ordered the new stays from Catalina Direct. Having never owned a C22 before, and therefore not knowing what is right or wrong, I simply swapped out the old and installed the new. I did notice at that time that to get the stays even remotely tight I had to thread them all the way down until there was no thread left on either turnbuckle. I have sailed this way all year with no issues. No shroud or stay was drum tight and all would be visibly loose on the leeward side when sailing.
Now, after sailing all year and learning how to sail this boat, I came across the Catalina 22 handbook and read the mast tuning section. Now, this boat never pointed as well as I thought it should but I chalked that up to the swing keel. So today I spent three hours at the slip "tuning" the mast. I do not have a Loos gauge yet so bear with me.
I centered the mast fore/aft using a weight on the main halyard. The forestay and backstay are centered within the turnbuckle. I then tightened the backstay until the weight was about 5 inches behind the mast on the boom. The book says 8" for a fin keel and 5-6 for a swing keel due to the increased weather helm inherent to the SK.
I then centered the upper shrouds using the weight as a rough guide. I then tightened them as far as I could by hand.
As per the mainsheet instructions, I then tightened the front lower stays using a screwdriver until the mast bowed 2-3" towards the bow at the spreaders. I then snugged up the aft lower shrouds as tight as I could by hand.
Note: I had to replace the open turnbuckles included with the CD kit in order to do this. The original closed turnbuckles are 1-1 1/2" shorter than the new open turnbuckles and were required to obtain the 2-3" bow. It would seem that the CD kit was about 1" to long.....
Now my mast is preloaded and has the slight rake to the rear, however;
My forestay and backstay are really tight, not drum tight, but tighter than they have ever been.
The upper stays are bottomed out but fairly tight.
The forward lower shrouds are drum tight. I mean TIGHT. They sound like a guitar string when you pluck them. This was the only way I could induce the 2-3" bow at the spreaders.
The rear lower shrouds are fairly tight.
Now, the book says that in high winds, all stays and shrouds should be really tight. I would say they are. The mast is centered with a slight aft rake and the proper bow at the spreaders. However, my upper stays are looser than my shrouds. I cannot make them any tighter. I have yet to sail this way until I get some feedback. Everything just seems to tight. Is this correct? Or even close to being correct? A friend at the dock always says to leave the rigging a little loose or the mast will snap, but he has an old Alberg 20 with a much stiffer and thicker mast.
Any ideas or comments? Thanks, Alan.
First, when I bought my boat, a 1975, I immediately replaced the lower forward and aft stays as they has fish hooks. I ordered the new stays from Catalina Direct. Having never owned a C22 before, and therefore not knowing what is right or wrong, I simply swapped out the old and installed the new. I did notice at that time that to get the stays even remotely tight I had to thread them all the way down until there was no thread left on either turnbuckle. I have sailed this way all year with no issues. No shroud or stay was drum tight and all would be visibly loose on the leeward side when sailing.
Now, after sailing all year and learning how to sail this boat, I came across the Catalina 22 handbook and read the mast tuning section. Now, this boat never pointed as well as I thought it should but I chalked that up to the swing keel. So today I spent three hours at the slip "tuning" the mast. I do not have a Loos gauge yet so bear with me.
I centered the mast fore/aft using a weight on the main halyard. The forestay and backstay are centered within the turnbuckle. I then tightened the backstay until the weight was about 5 inches behind the mast on the boom. The book says 8" for a fin keel and 5-6 for a swing keel due to the increased weather helm inherent to the SK.
I then centered the upper shrouds using the weight as a rough guide. I then tightened them as far as I could by hand.
As per the mainsheet instructions, I then tightened the front lower stays using a screwdriver until the mast bowed 2-3" towards the bow at the spreaders. I then snugged up the aft lower shrouds as tight as I could by hand.
Note: I had to replace the open turnbuckles included with the CD kit in order to do this. The original closed turnbuckles are 1-1 1/2" shorter than the new open turnbuckles and were required to obtain the 2-3" bow. It would seem that the CD kit was about 1" to long.....
Now my mast is preloaded and has the slight rake to the rear, however;
My forestay and backstay are really tight, not drum tight, but tighter than they have ever been.
The upper stays are bottomed out but fairly tight.
The forward lower shrouds are drum tight. I mean TIGHT. They sound like a guitar string when you pluck them. This was the only way I could induce the 2-3" bow at the spreaders.
The rear lower shrouds are fairly tight.
Now, the book says that in high winds, all stays and shrouds should be really tight. I would say they are. The mast is centered with a slight aft rake and the proper bow at the spreaders. However, my upper stays are looser than my shrouds. I cannot make them any tighter. I have yet to sail this way until I get some feedback. Everything just seems to tight. Is this correct? Or even close to being correct? A friend at the dock always says to leave the rigging a little loose or the mast will snap, but he has an old Alberg 20 with a much stiffer and thicker mast.
Any ideas or comments? Thanks, Alan.