Stay Adjustments - Need your help

[Jack Kelly]

Just put the mast up this weekend for the first time. The side stays are very tight. The back stays are a bit loose - The mast is raked slightly to stern. Should the side stays be so tight? The lower inside stays can't be loosened much and the spreaders are somewhat flexed and they are angled upward vs. horizontal - Should I try to get longer turnbuckles to screw into to get more slack? I assume these are factory parts. ( I checked the archives before writing this...) Thanks for your help! Jack.

 

[Jim Maroldo]

Here's what you need to know...

Check the link below Jack. This thread gives a good discussion on the subject of H23 standing rigging. As you will see from reading this, you will be tuning the rigging to obtain a certain amount of bend AND aft rake in the 23's mast. Do you have the original manual for the '23'? This will give you a good starting point. Smooth Sailing!Jim Maroldos/v: Lil' Wass Ett

 

[Wanderer138]

Hmmmm

Hi Jack:After years of head-scratching and rig adjustments, I've come to the conclusion that there are only two ways to tune the H23 rig:a) the RonCo way (set it and forget it) which will work for 75% of the H23 sailors out thereb) tune and tune again (for those who really want to see the full potential of this great little boat).The H23 is light (2300 lb) with generous sail area and a highly adjustable rig. There is a wide variety of headsails (110 working jib, 128 genoa, 135 genoa, 150 genoa and even a 190 decksweeper for the truly disturbed) in dacron, mylar and other exotic fabrics, conventional and full-batten mainsails with no roach or full roach. Some sails will be brand new and others will be blown out. Wind conditions vary from light and variable to Force 5. Number, weight and placement of crew is also significant.I say all that to make the point that this is a light, responsive boat. In fact it's more of an overgrown performance dinghy than a cruising boat. All the factors I mentioned will affect its trim, so you have to tune the rig to suit. There is no one "right" setting, but there are a few constants that you can aim for.a) the H23 doesn't like a lot of heel, about 15 degrees is enough. In real terms, the lee rail should be no closer than six inches or so off the waterb) you should have slight weather helm under your typical sailing conditions. Tune the rig for those conditions and you should have slight lee helm in light air and more weather helm as the wind builds. Crew position can remove a lot of the weather helm.c) if you're sailing shorthanded upwind and the wind starts to build, add more bend to the mast. This does two things simultaneously; depowers the rig by flattening the lower half of the main and reduces heel by adding twist and spilling air off the top of the sail. Again, the trick is to keep the heel under 15 degrees.d) If you still have too much heel, reef the main. You will have less sail area but also less heel and surprisingly enough the boat will be just as fast. Good luck.PeterH23 "Raven"

 

[Doug T.]

Spreaders

One question you asked wasn't answered by the other two posts: Your spreaders should NOT be horizontal. They should be angled upward slightly so that they bisect the angle made by the upper shroud on it's way up to the masthead. This keeps the load even on the spreader.