Standing rigging tuning

[c_witch]

Hiee,

We trailer our boat when ever we go sailing. My question is how many of you tune your standing rigging each and every time you launch. We have been thinking of tuning it on the trailer at home and only backing off the shrouds and back stay enough to undo from the chain plates and keeping track of the number of turns on the turnbuckles. And I guess pretty much the same for the fore stay. Any thoughts on this.

Happy sailing,
Brina

PS got the boat kinda up on the cradle. Raised the bow as much as I felt comfortable with in trying to get her level stem to stern but didn't make it lol so we cant get the trailer out from under her but we were able to move it forward enough that I can get most of what was left and by taking of the rear bunk rollers will be able to get the rest.

PSS I'm also thinking of mounting the tranducer for the fish finder right at the front of the keel box for the swing keel and routing the cable thru a 3/16 hole drilled thru the hull just in front of the keel box.

 

[Franky boy]

Hi, I used to take her out every time also. You could tune your rigging once and then keep track of the adjustments. This worked out fine for me. But you should do the first tunning with the boat in the water not on the trailer (same as motor-shaft alignment on inboard motors). You boat hull is very likley to be distorted on the trailer.
Francois

 

[dscribner]

Brina,

We leave everything taunt and have a Johnson Lever on the back stay. You pop it open, which loosens the rigging enough to pull the pin of the front stay, then lay 'er down. The beauty of it is that the back stay is always attached. It's very cool. I bought mine on Ebay for $35. I strongly recommend it. Have you and the Mrs. stepped it yet?

Don

 

[Joe]

Brina,

We leave everything taunt and have a Johnson Lever on the back stay. You pop it open, which loosens the rigging enough to pull the pin of the front stay, then lay 'er down. The beauty of it is that the back stay is always attached. It's very cool. I bought mine on Ebay for $35. I strongly recommend it. Have you and the Mrs. stepped it yet?

Don

That's a perfecit solution, Don. I set my beach cat (no backstay) similarly, but with the headstay.... left the shouds set, used the jib halyard to pull some slack in the headstay so the pin could be pulled for adjustment or taking down. On boats that size, no one used turnbuckles, everyone used pin hole adjusters.

 

[SailArkansas]

I might be missing something here but I think it all depends on the type of tabernacle your boat has and the size of your boat. If it is a hinged or pinned type tabernacle such as Dwyers uses there is no need to loosen the shrouds at all or remove chainplates. Just loosening the head stay allows the mast to lay down aft and then, after removing the mast base from the tabernackle, simply slide the mast forward in its horizontal position until the base rests on your mast carrier. Then just secure the shrouds to the mast with a bungee and you are ready to trailer. The Johnson lever could be used on the forestay.

 

[soling42]

We've used a lever from CS Johnson on the forestay on both our current trailer boat and our last one. It's a sweet addition that saves time and effort.

 

[SailArkansas]

We've used a lever from CS Johnson on the forestay on both our current trailer boat and our last one. It's a sweet addition that saves time and effort.

Nicely done!

 

[kenn]

Brina,

We leave everything taunt and have a Johnson Lever on the back stay. You pop it open, which loosens the rigging enough to pull the pin of the front stay, then lay 'er down. The beauty of it is that the back stay is always attached. It's very cool. I bought mine on Ebay for $35. I strongly recommend it. Have you and the Mrs. stepped it yet?

Don

In previous years we had the forestay set with a pinhole adjuster like Joe, then set up the sidestay turnbuckles. We don't have a backstay.

To lower the mast, I'd back off the sidestay turnbuckles exactly 10 turns, then drop the mast... reverse the process to raise the mast. But it's a bit of a pain, and it's wearing out the turnbuckles...

So this year, I've bought the smaller Johnson lever to use on the forestay, so I can reduce tension without touching a turnbuckle. I felt really smart about this til our class association's wise man mentioned that he simply uses a jib halyard to raise the mast and also to pull the mast forward hard enough that he can pin the bowstay... no fancy-schmantzy release required.

Oh well, I needed more weight forward anyway.

 

[dscribner]

Kenn,

I tried that at first. I have a length of StaSet on the front of the mast that is solely used for stepping. I also have a block and tackle permanently mounted to our gin pole so I never have to mess with the main sheet. So, I can pull to get the pin in but the furler foil (oops, that might be the diff) sags and never returns to taut. Using the Johnson Lever (doesn't that sound like something a shifty mechanic will claim needs replacing??) we can tension all things so the foil doesn't sag much. IMHO it was $35 well spent.

 

[kenn]

Kenn,

I tried that at first. I have a length of StaSet on the front of the mast that is solely used for stepping. I also have a block and tackle permanently mounted to our gin pole so I never have to mess with the main sheet. So, I can pull to get the pin in but the furler foil (oops, that might be the diff) sags and never returns to taut. Using the Johnson Lever (doesn't that sound like something a shifty mechanic will claim needs replacing??) we can tension all things so the foil doesn't sag much. IMHO it was $35 well spent.

Thanks. Having a larger boat with a backstay, your rig tension is likely greater than mine anyway.

 

[soling42]

Kenn, Don't feel bad.

Like DS I had also tried to draw tension on the jib halyard just enough to allow the needed forestay slack to pin it but it was still very difficult and was straining the rig so much that the lever seemed like an obvious choice to keep from straining the rig or detuning our rig each launch. Also, as hard as it needed to be pulled if anything had failed it would've been catastrophic. Our lever is the simplest, safest way to save time rigging our boat.

At 36' our mast is on the big size for a trailer boat and from the sound of it your class assc wise guy would have a hard time with my simple 12v atv winch mast raising setup too Even the old guys need to be open minded enough to learn a new trick occasionally. keep the lever and have a great season.

Mike