Upgrading the rigging on a O'Day 23-2

Joe11688 · Oct 13, 2011

Technodad said:
I am going to install a new Furlex 55-10 furler, it comes with a new forestay so I am going to upsize it to 3/16" dia from the stock 5/32".

I found the standing rigging on the O'Day 23-2 to be very small (marginal).
The stays are 5/32" with all the turnbuckles and pins being just 1/4" dia.

My Sandpiper sailboat which is only 18 1/2 feet long has 5/16" dia turnbuckles and pins.

Is the 3/16" size good or are there pitfalls I will run into?

Has anyone upgraded their standing rigging????????? if so, to what?

Thanks
John

Yes John. Years ago when I lost my mast out off Newport RI on my 86 O'Day 222, I had Rig-Rite out of Warwick RI set me up a new mast and rigging. They increased the diameter of my lower stays from 1/8" to 5/32". It wasn't long after that, I had brought my boat down to Rudy's store, D & R Marine in Assonet Ma. to have him replace something on the rigging, and his business partner at the time, a guy named Jeff was looking at the interior of my cabin and noticed one of the "L" brackets on the bulkhead that holds the chainplates, was cracked right at the bend.
Rudy advised me to replace the chainplates with O'Day 25 chainplates which I did. I also beefed up the V birth side of the bulkhead with solid oak and bolted them to the fiberglass.
Then after a period of time, the chainplates started to leak. I talked to Rudy about it and he advised me to have two stainless steel covers made up and welded to the chainplates with four bolts each going through the deck, so I did that. I truly believe to this day that going to larger wire contributed to the chainplate problem.
I also had Rig-Rite install the top half of a Kenyon stainless steel hinged tabernacle to my mast. I installed the bottom half plus the utility plate on a piece of 1" Teak to the top of the cabin myself. This worked great for about ten years and then the bottom of my mast corroded because of the stainless steel mast plug that they made up. This past summer I had to cut 2" off the bottom of my mast because the aluminum was so corroded that it was ready to blow out. I was able to make up the 2" needed by using Trex. I replaced the 1" thick Teak block on my cabin with a piece of 1" thick Trex which will be permanent. The Trex between the mast plug and the top hinge plate is temporary until I can figure out what to use in place of it. In the mean time, it works in spite of the fact that it's a little too heavy and it looks kind of "fugly".
So in the final analysis, for every action taken, there is always a reaction and sometimes it can be a negative one. You may want to think it through first.
Joe

GeorgiaBII · Oct 13, 2011

Why do you think the heavier rigging cables caused your issues?

Wouldn't the load and stress be the same regardless of the cable size?

Joe11688 · Oct 14, 2011

GeorgiaBII said:
Why do you think the heavier rigging cables caused your issues?

Wouldn't the load and stress be the same regardless of the cable size?

A thicker cable can have the appearance of being slack while carrying more tension than a thinner cable with the same tension number on the gauge. If I didn't own a tension guage I would have no idea of the tension on my lower stays. As a general rule, the lower stays need to have a little less tension on them than the upper stays. Anytime I have measured my lower stays with my Loos Gauge, I came up with a higher number on them than the upper stays, yet the lower stays appeared looser than my upper stays.
Back in the mid 1990s, Rudy had a guy in Bristol RI build six Weekenders using the O'Day 192 molds that he bought off the Fall River factory after they went under. Rudy knew that the U bolt type chainplates that the factory installed, could have issues down the road, so instead of going with L brackets on the bulkhead to hold these chainplates, he had special struts made up for the chainplate and attached them to the hull inside the cabin. He told me at the time that O'Day should have increased the bolt thickness on these U bolt type chainplates, but that's neither here nor there.
It's been my observation for years now that my lower stays look slack, yet they have more tension on them than my upper stays which appear tight. If I didn't have a gauge, I'd probably tighten my stays up a little more to make them look right in comparison with the upper stays, and they would be putting a heck of a lot more strain on my chainplates than my upper stays. That's why I always tell people this; "if your boat has a certain thickness of stays all the way around, stick with that size." In my case, the O'Day 222 has 1/8" stays. I honestly think that the rigger should have known better than to increase the stay thickness, because I sure didn't. My forestay is 5/32" and my backstay is 1/8". I have no idea what the tension is on my forestay because I have a CDI roller furler but thanks to my Johnson Handy-lock on my backstay, I never need to mess with any of my other stays when I need to raise/lower my mast. The Handy-Lock does it all in addition with a "Press Button Quick Pin" on my forestay, thank God. Consequently, I seldom ever break out my gauge and check my stays. In fact, I let my friends borrow my gauge most of the time.

Joe11688 · Oct 15, 2011

Technodad said:
Thank you very much Joe for your feedback on the stays, I am sticking to the stock 5/32 stay size for the new Furlex 54-10 I have ordered.
This furler comes with a new front stay. After I install the furler I will then order a
135 genny with foam luff, TT windows and uv strips from Rolly Tasker.

I will be taking her out of the lake tomorrow and will then figure out the covering for my driveway storage.
I am going to try out the factory method of lowering the mast forward with the main sheet blocks.

John

John,
When I bought my CDI Roller Furler off Rudy a few years ago, Rudy stripped off enough drum line to reach the corner of the cabin bulkhead which is where the cleat was located on all the 222s, and 192s when they came our with those cheap Schaeffer furlers. Back when I bought my boat, I tried out that furler and didn't like it so I converted my Neil Pride Gennie over to conventional piston hanks and removed the cleat from the Starboard corner of my cabin.
To make a long story short, I didn't have enough line on my CDI drum to bring the end back to the stern pulpit so I installed a Herreshoff Cleat on my Starboard combing in front of my Gennie winch. Big mistake! Almost every time I tacked, the Gennie would luff and cause the sheet to get caught in that cleat.
Last year I removed that cleat and installed a jam cleat right where I wanted to have it which is just on the inside of my stern rail. I had just enough line to make it but in the CDI manual, it states that there is supposed to be 22 wraps of line on the drum when the sail is out. So I'm going to have to either buy a new longer control line or add on to the one I have. I've never spliced thin braid and I'll probably need to use a coat hanger instead of a fid with the pusher if I do decide to splice on more braid.
So you may want to take this into consideration when you get your furler. I wound up installing a 4" Beckson deck plate inside my fuel compartment to gain access to the nuts and bolts for this jam cleat, but it was well worth it. I also mounted a single sheave to the bottom of my stern rail for the line with a fiber handle on the end. It's in a place that is very convenient for me to operate my line without leaving the helm.
As far as covering the boat is concerned; someone on the forum was just inquiring about that and Rich posted some great pics of his boat cover. I also posted some pics of mine on that thread. The way I cover my boat is a cheap way to go but it involves a little extra work. So you may want to check it out. Good luck!
Joe

Upgrading the rigging on a O'Day 23-2

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