Tune Standing Rig Tension as an Amateur

Posted by TimeDilution@reddit | sailing | View on Reddit | 25 comments

Hi r/sailing, I'm a beginner sailboat owner and have purchased a 26 foot trailer sailer. it's been sitting in my backyard for the last 2.5 years but that's another matter. now that I've finally gotten near the end of getting it ready, I want to know if I need to buy a rig tension gauge or if that's somewhat overkill. On one hand it seems like $150 for some safety equipment to get a baseline reasonable tension would be a good idea, on the other hand I wonder if I'm just overspending as a beginners tax for thinking I need one at all. Currently the shrouds don't really feel tight and have a good bit of play.

I've gotten to the point where I just throw money at this thing to make the problems go away, but I'd like to rein it in somewhat. it's been a fun project and I've learned a lot. I knew everyone said it's expensive and hard to have a sailboat so I kind of expected it, but man is it another thing to actually experience it!

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RockHead-MA@reddit

If you do method #2, you should take up the same number of turns on the second side as you did on the first. Though I feel like you'd possibly be overtightened a touch. A VERY slight bit of slack on the leeward side while sailing hard upwind in decent breeze is generally where you want to be on a recreational boat (vs racing). JUST losing tension... Not flopping all around.

With any method, make sure that the masthead is close to centered before starting.

Most importantly, carefully check the mast fittings, all shrouds, and turnbuckles. Good practice to inspect the chain plates & their fastenings too. Any cracked fittings, delaminating bulkheads, broken wire strands, or missing fasteners can lead to an expensive loss of the mast, which commonly will shred sails as it all comes tumbling down. Tape all ring dings or cotter pins with electrical or rigging tape when you're done.

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texasrigger@reddit

I disagree on taping pins. That holds in dirt and debris. Bend the cotter pins until the tips are inside the turnbuckle body and unable to snag anything.

Also, keep in mind that you can fail a chainplate inspecting it in place but you can't pass one. Where they are most likely to fail is where they pass through the deck where you can't see them.

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RockHead-MA@reddit

Fair enough on the taping. And chainplates. That's probably because you're in TX, where rigs stay up for multiple years, and I'm in MA, where they mostly come down annually :)

For a trailer sailer, I'd actually just use ring-dings for ease of rigging and unrigging every time. You're "inspecting" them every time you rig & de-rig. And chances are the chainplate attachments may be more prone to failure on a trailer sailer, unless they're bolted to solid laminate. Neither is particularly common IME, but they are potentially catastrophic.

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texasrigger@reddit

Yeah, masts here stay up for decades in some cases. A standing mast may go through a couple of rigs. They really only ever come down if there's a specific problem to address, the design of the rig requires it for replacing cables (B&R rigs mostly), or the boat is being trucked out of the area.

Solstar810@reddit

Buy the loos gauge, foolproof and worth it, use every season

ONLYallcaps@reddit

But put it on a tether and put that on your wrist.

TheAmicableSnowman@reddit

Then put your wrist on a tether and bolt that to the boat.

Just use your fingers. There are a number of tutorials available online. You want to do a static tune and a dynamic tune (one at the dock, one under sail). It's not hard -- you can do it yourself but bringing a friend saves some time and scrambling around.

ccgarnaal@reddit

this. I have been stepping my 12m wooden mast yearly for 15 years. You get a good feel for it.
Important to measure your spanners are equally tensioned and the mast is straight.
Then I go sailing and at 40 degree angle I want the lee side just yes/no slack. Like not moving but also not feeling under tension anymore.

But of course the tool makes thing easier to measure. Especially on big rigs and high tension.
On a small boat I would not worry about it.

Yes, do that!!!

devalk43@reddit

This +1, love my loos gauge and it takes away the “are you sure that’s right?” my wife used to give me every time I tuned the standing rigging. Yes, yes I’m sure.

TheVoiceOfEurope@reddit

2 methods:

1) get a 2m tape measure. Measure a length of 2m of your rigging. Put tape on both ends. Tighten the rig, there should be a 2cm stretch, you should measure 202m between the taped parts.

2) tighten shrouds by hand , go sailing. Put her hard on one side; remove all slack from the leeward shrouds; put her on the other tack, remove the slack from the leeward shroud. There. done.

Method 1 - 2mm, not 2cm. 2 cm is nearly an inch of stretch. 1x19 stretches about 1mm per meter at 10% tension.

Method 2 - when you tension the leeward side count your turns and put the same number of turns on the other side. The leeward shroud an still feel loose, just not dead slack and bouncing on the pin.

dwkfym@reddit

I have a question - even with a loos gauge, wouldn't tightening one side first affect the other side's tension, thus making your mast a bit off center? I recently did this to fix a spreader problem I had, and couldn't get that out of my mind.

If you are measuring tension and doing one side first yes, if your initial position is correct and the loads balanced and you are just tightening things evenly, if you count your turns on the turnbuckle and adjust both sides the same then no, the mast will end up in the same relative position.

thanks. and to fix it - take my main halyard (my spin halyard is offset), run it out until it touches my bulwark cap rail on one side, then see if it touches the other side? how reliable do you think that method is to a 76 pearson? (I noticed old fiberglass boats are never that 'square')

Boats are never symmetrical and nothing about measuring with a halyard like that is exactly high precision but that method is absolutely good enough to square up the mast.

thank you! as usual.

the-montser@reddit

Method 2 will result in a mast that is not in column vertically. It will be leaning toward the side you tightened first.

Would both not be tensioned to the same strength?

The stays will be the same tension but not the same length.

Since you are pulling out all the slack of the leeward side, the windward stay will shorten and the mast will move to windward. Then when you tack, since the old windward side is already shorter, the mast won’t need move to weather as far to pull the slack out of it, so the new windward stay won’t shorten as much as the old windward stay.

This results in a mast that is leaning slightly toward the side you adjusted first.

LameBMX@reddit

got vernier calipers laying around? no, but the loos. yes, look up the stretch vs load table for the wire. can get it close enough by marking 100mm and knowing what it will stretch to once properly preloaded.

reddittiswierd@reddit

I would get the gauge. I feel like every season you should want to measure the tension before the first sail.

MisterMasterCyIinder@reddit

I'd recommend getting the tool, it's really fairly cheap, relatively speaking. But there are also loads of them out there, it's probably fairly possible to find someone locally you can borrow one from for an afternoon.

If you’re just daysailing, tighten the uppers until they are taut, then a bit more. Use the main halyard to ensure the mast is vertical relative to the boat.

Then tighten the lowers to keep the middle section of the mast in column. The lowers don’t need much tension.

jaxn@reddit

if you are going to race, you want a tension gauge. If you are just cruising, you probably don’t need it.

Make sure the mast is straight side-to-side with a halyard. Then tighten/loosen each side the same number of turns each time.