Shroud Tension

[daleyellin]

I am preparing to put my "new" (to me) 222 in the water for the summer. I've stepped the mast, with the boat on the trailer at home, and noticed that the upper shrouds are tight, but the lower shrouds have a good bit of slack in them.

Is there a specific tension measurement, or range, for the upper and lower shrouds, and for the backstay for that matter? I have "Loos" tension gauge on the boat.

Thanks,

Dale
Parrot Head II

 

[Brian S]

You can try the Selden mast tuning manual, available here: http://www.seldenmast.com/frameset.cfm?id=6608&randnum=956379842 It's the "Hints and Advice" file, I believe...

I calculated 15% of breaking strength of my 1/8" wire rigging at about 265pounds, but then found out that the shroud tension gauge I have doesn't even start registering until after that, maybe 300 pounds. So I really have no idea how tight my rig is... What I might do is to get around to cutting 2 pieces of exactly 2 meter wood to attach to the uppers, and do the measurement thing like they do in the Selden guide. Right now, I'm eyeballed, and I swear I've got a bit of pre-bend going on, which I could maybe correct with the lowers, but I'm concerned that the O'day rigging guide says there shouldn't be much tension on the lowers at all.

I was concerned about rake, and having too much, but it's hard to figure out if the boat is level. Turns out I felt the boat was too neutral, tending to lee helm, and I noticed my forestay turnbuckle was tightened maybe 3/4, so I backed that off and took up on the uppers a bit. Now I think I've got a bit more weather helm, but I think the forestay slacks off a bit much (I'm using a hank on jib.)

But hey, the rig is still standing after 2 sails, so...

Brian