*Three* shrouds per side on 22-footer -- really?

[Becubed]

I recently bought a 1974 Hullmaster 22' that has three shrouds per side. Does that seem excessive to others, for a boat of this size? I suspect one was added by a previous owner.

The chainplates can accept two shrouds via turnbuckles, currently both 1/4" wire rope: an upper through the spreaders and a forward lower. The mystery shroud is on the aft lower position at the mast (on the right in the attached photo) and is a bit thicker, probably 3/16". It also has a turnbuckle and is labeled with instructions to attach it to the toe rail. These labels are from the previous owner, who wasn't an experienced sailor -- but he labeled everything according to what the next-previous (and apparently experienced) owner told him.

This all seems a bit weird. An extra shroud, attached to the toe rail? I'm inclined to remove it entirely but would love another perspective first, as this is my first keel boat (recently upsized from a classic 19' Lightning).

I had a survey done last week and can confirm the mast step and chainplates are in good condition. Maybe the third shroud was part of a mast stepping system in the distant past?

Thanks, all! My first post and grateful for any thoughts.

 

[Stu Jackson]

Not unusual at all. Two lowers and an upper. The ubiquitous Catalina 22 is like that, I had one, great, simple rig.

 

[higgs]

Your post intrigued so I did some research. Found this info:

hullmaster 22 sailboat photos - Google Search

And: HULLMASTER 22 - sailboatdata

I know the first one is pretty lengty but that is what the copy feature gave me.

 

[dlochner]

The spreader fitting strongly suggests the boat was designed to have both forward and aft lowers.

The forward lowers help to add prebend to the mast while the aft lowers work to prevent pumping and to counteract the force from the lowers.

 

[Becubed]

This is amazing. Thank you, all! I was tripped up by the idea of attaching to the toe rail -- assuming that if designed for 3 shrouds, it'd have chainplate connections for all three.

It's reassuring to know that others like the Catalina are designed similarly. And Higgs, I hadn't thought to scrutinize the photo on sailboatdata; it's low resolution but sure looks like there's a lower shroud attached to the toe rail.

 

[Joe]

Not unusual at all. Two lowers and an upper. The ubiquitous Catalina 22 is like that, I had one, great, simple rig.

As is the Catalina 27 and it's big sister the Catalina 30.... three pairs of shrouds: a set of cap shrouds, two sets of lowers, angled forward and aft.
Pretty common set up for masthead rigged boats, at least with older generation vessels.

 

[sailme88]

AND then....... there's the Marshall Cat boat and a few others without ANY shrouds....