dinghy rigging question

[1114C]

i need help!!

i am putting together a fireball dinghy which i bought off ebay as a project - passes the time and enjoying it

getting towards having everything in place now and tried to raise the mast last weekend but found that both port and starboard stays were around 1 foot short, there clearly needs to be some sort of connection between the end of the wire rigging and the boat itself but I do not know what?

does anyone know what would be used to make that connection?

thanks

 

[Twister_Ken]

Sort of double plate with holes though to accommodate different shroud lengths and tensions.

Called stay or shroud adjusters.

Here's one:

 

[WindermereColvic]

dont know fireballs but ive seen people use strong twine lashings, i supose it would be useful if the mast is up and down a lot. perhaps you could arange some sort of double purchace system to get them tight enough. or, perhaps more preductivly, ask thease people:
http://www.fireball-dinghy.org.uk/index.htm

 

[Skyva_2]

What kind of fitting is on the boat?

You could use a short wire strop with hard eye at each end.

Is it possible the mast is not the original?

 

[earlybird]

In my dinghy days, a type of Highfield lever was sometimes used to connect shrouds to chain-plates. The idea was to slacken the rig down-wind. they would typically have been around 9 inches long.

 

[lw395]

If its about a foot short, that sounds like 'shroud highfield levers' which are over-centre levers to put the rig tension on via the shrouds. In their absense adjusters as above plus stainless straps can be used, then tension the rig via the jib halyard.
The modern tendency is to rake the mast quite a lot, but the modern boats will move it more upright to sail downwind.

 

[1114C]

thanks for your help - this forum really does come up with the goods sometimes!


looks like it is the shroud highfield levers - I never knew until now what they were called nor how they worked but knowing the name has allowed me to look up how they work - the boat came with one, looks like if I buy another i am another step closer to getting her on the water

thanks all!

 

[lw395]

Just had a look at the fireball website, it looks like the shrouds are not adjusted while racing? But there are usually controls for bend. I sailed (crewed) a ball years ago, I'm going to look at them at the dinghy show this weekend!
good luck with your boat!

 

[seumask]

We used to have a fireball with shrouds that you could loosen down wind with a highfield lever arranagement, they accounted for abouth 12 inches of shroud IIRC.

 

[Kelpie]

Sounds like a job for a lanyard, if you just want to get going easily and cheaply. As much purchase as you want and all for the price of a bit of string.

 

[maxi77]

On most dinghies the port and starbord shrous go to adjusters as shown above lots of holes lets you get the mast vertical athwartships. The lanyard is only used on the forestay with final rig tension being obtained by a highfield lever on the jib halyard (usually there is a wire luff rope in the jib)

Very few classes had slack rigs or even the ability to slacken the shrouds