How to tell if your rig need tuning?

[Nostrodamus]

I know it is another one of those complicated subjects but how can you tell if your rig needs tuning?

I don't want to race but like everyone I want the best out of my sailing.

Does it make a lot of difference getting your rig "tuned" or are there simple things you can look at or do yourself?

Thanks

 

[temptress]

I know it is another one of those complicated subjects but how can you tell if your rig needs tuning?
...

If you don't know then it probably does. Get a rigger or better still a sail-maker to come out sailing with you. You will most likely have to pay them for the service.

 

[vyv_cox]

This page on my website describes setting up a simple masthead rig, single spreaders. It may not be applicable to yours, but some of the points I have made, such as looking up the mast to check straightness, looseness of leeward shrouds, excessive bow in forestay, etc will assist you to make a decision as to whether it needs looking at.

 

[awol]

Bound to need it, 'cos you've thought about it. There is a Seldén rig tuning guide available on the net which will allow you to fiddle quasi-knowledgeably. Starts of with get your mast vertical side to side, set up rake and then tension with a simple method that does not require an expensive tensometer, just a tape measure.

Of course you could try the simple method of tightening up the lee rigging to take out the slack - tends to bend wooden boats, though.

 

[Nostrodamus]

As I say, I wouldn't know what to look for if my rig was out of tune and that is why I asked. As I had new standing rigging and sails last year it should be ok but i just wanted to know what to look for.
I don't know how often you have to have your rig tuned but I suspect a lot of boats sailing today are doing so with so so rigs.
Thank you Vyv, I will have a look.

 

[Robin]

As I say, I wouldn't know what to look for if my rig was out of tune and that is why I asked. As I had new standing rigging and sails last year it should be ok but i just wanted to know what to look for.
I don't know how often you have to have your rig tuned but I suspect a lot of boats sailing today are doing so with so so rigs.
Thank you Vyv, I will have a look.

This is exactly when and why the rig needs to be tuned! I doubt very much that when your rigging was replaced it was anything other than just plonked in place approximately. It is easy enough to do yourself following the guides suggested or better still if in doubt get a sailmaker/rigger to go out with you to do it. It is a two part task, part one stationary and part two out sailing in a moderate (full sail) breeze.

 

[CAPTAIN FANTASTIC]

I bought a rigging tuner and nowadays I tune it myself; easy and takes less than half an hour. A tuned rigging makes a difference in the quality of sailing, especially going to windward.

Macwester are not known to like it when going close to the wind but when I tuned the rigging, I found a huge difference.

 

[Rigger Mortice]

I've found this book to be very good for both rig tuning and sail trimming.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Sail-Rig-Tu...0670/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1331466889&sr=8-1

 

[Rivers & creeks]

When I bought a Loos tension gauge I was embarrassed at how slack the rigging was. We had twin backstays on that boat and even though they felt the same, the gauge showed one was 30% tighter than the other

 

[Simondjuk]

Probably 90% or more of rigs are way too slack. If you've never tensioned your rig whilst using a gauge or checking the tension by measuring the stretch of the wire, you're very unlikely to have used enough welly. It feels like you're going to break something to pull even small wires of 5mm or so up to 20 to 25 percent of their breaking strain, which is a typical starting point from which to make final adjustments.

Most people seem to think that winding their rig down tight is cruel to the wire, deck hardware and mast, but it is not. The snatch loads which are likely to occur under sail due to slack in the rig will be far greater than the constant loads in a correctly tensioned rig.

With many fractional rigs, particularly ones with the forestay set well down the mast such as 3/4 fractionals, the only way of getting forestay tension is through shroud tension, so it's essential to wind the rig down hard.

Assuming that your rig will be about right because it was set up when new rigging was fitted a year ago may seem intuitive, but it is more likely that the opposite is true. As the mast had just been restepped, the wire and fittings were all new, the terminals had only just been installed into their housings, and the deck mounting points had probably been unloaded for a while and hence relaxed, it is likely (even if the rigger did wind it down as hard as he should have at the time, which in itself is doubtful) that on your first sail everything settled down a little and considerable slack crept in. By way of example, the upper (cap, but not cap) shrouds on our Evolution lost around 30% of their tension during the first two days sailing after replacement of the standing rigging, deck staples, knees and fixings. You could feel the performance drop off in that time. Then, on the third day having tensioned the rig the previous evening, all the pointing ability and performance was back. The rig settled a little more after that, and required a minor tweak up, but now remains as set.

The difference in performance of the boat and the security and longevity of the rig are marked between a badly and well tuned rig. It is not something to be dismissed as only for speed hungry racers. Just look at the number of masts you see panting and vibrating in a marina in a strong blow and consider what that is doing to the rig even without the sails hoisted. I've seen a three year old mast which failed at the spreaders due to fatigue caused by flexing and vibration caused by insufficient tension. This happened while the boat was on her mooring, not whilst she was under sail.

It something that's well worth looking into.

 

[Spuddy]

Loos gauge, as mentioned does the tension checking easily and quickly. I got mine from Salty John who posts here, quite reasonable price, I thought. Friends could use it too.

 

[Robin]

Getting tensions right is one thing but not all of it, because you can have the rig all set up with the right loadings but still way off tune as far as balance is concerned. The rake has to be right, some pre-bend aft is good, forward rake is bad and too much aft is bad on most boats. Then again the set up at rest may be well OK on the gauge but still not right when under sail, which is when it really counts.

 

[CAPTAIN FANTASTIC]

Loos gauge, as mentioned does the tension checking easily and quickly. I got mine from Salty John who posts here, quite reasonable price, I thought. Friends could use it too.

+1 ; I got mine from Salty John too; excellent piece of kit