Jeanneau Sun 2000 Rigging Tension

[RichH79]

Hi,

I'm new to boat ownership and forums so any assistance would be gratefully received.

I’ve recently bought a Jeanneau Sun 2000. I’m trying to find out how to tension the rigging but can find very little information. I’m not confident it is set correctly and would like to avoid an expensive mistake. I’ve looked into tension gauges but does anyone have a idiots guide to setting the tension or should I get a professional to set it for me?

Also does anyone know of a owners group for the Sun 2000. I've been searching high and low but cant find anything

Cheers
Rich

 

[RichardS]

Welcome Rich.

As a very rough guide, I believe that when the boat is stationary the rigging either side should feel tight and should "twang". When you are on a reach and heeled the rigging on the leeward side should have some looseness to it. Not flapping around but not "twangy" / tight. Obviously, very tight now on the windward side.

Very unscientific I know but if yours is like this it's probably not too far out but worth getting checked if you have any doubts.

Richard

 

[Tranona]

You will find a good guide to setting up rigs on the Selden website.

 

[bluerm166]

Hello Rich,
There was an excellent site dedicated to the Sun 2000 - called Sun2k.fr with lots of information and discussion.Unfortunately it is currently offline following an attack which jumbled the data.I used to own a 2000 and might have some answers to queries but I have never seen anything related to rigging set up although I think the basics may be in the manual.

 

[PaulMcC]

I second the advice recommending the Seldon rig tuning guide. Also if you want to buy a Loos rig tension guage I have one given to me as a gift and unfortunately no use to me. (It is for 5mm-7mm rigging and I have 8mm. Unused and available for 75% of new price. Drop me a PM if you're interested.)

 

[RichH79]

Hi All

Thanks very much for your responses and I will check out my guitar technique on Saturday. Weather depending. I have also had a look Selden’s site and downloaded their guide which looks very useful.

I did stumble across some references to the Sun2k.fr site and I hope they get it back online soon as it sounds like a great source of information.

 

[pvb]

The Selden manual should give you the info you need to do the job. If you're not happy you've got it right, a local rigger could easily check it for you quite quickly, at relatively little cost (especially if it's done when he's in your area on another job).

 

[KellysEye]

What I used to do was tighten until I could no longer turn the spanner, you can't breakanything. If there is slack one side on a tack it is too loose

 

[RichardS]

What I used to do was tighten until I could no longer turn the spanner, you can't breakanything. If there is slack one side on a tack it is too loose

I'm somewhat surprised by both your statements. I would have thought you could overtighten the rig and start to deform the hull if you kept going until you could not tighten any more. And when you are on a reach / beat at more than 15 or 20 degrees of heel you should feel the leeward shroud slacken as I suggested in #2. Obviously, it's a matter of degree but if the boat is heeling and the leeward shroud is still firm/taught then I would suggest that you have them too tight to start with.

Richard

 

[Daydream believer]

I'm somewhat surprised by both your statements. I would have thought you could overtighten the rig and start to deform the hull if you kept going until you could not tighten any more. And when you are on a reach / beat at more than 15 or 20 degrees of heel you should feel the leeward shroud slacken as I suggested in #2. Obviously, it's a matter of degree but if the boat is heeling and the leeward shroud is still firm/taught then I would suggest that you have them too tight to start with.

Richard

My experience of fractional rig is more in line with kellyseye.
I have a loos gauge & my uppers are at 24% mids 18%
If you get a slack wire to leward when on a beat you need to tighten the uppers

 

[RichardS]

My experience of fractional rig is more in line with kellyseye.
I have a loos gauge & my uppers are at 24% mids 18%
If you get a slack wire to leward when on a beat you need to tighten the uppers

Interesting. Maybe there's a rigger on here who can offer an opinion?

I've got a cat now so my heeling is only about 5 degrees but I can still feel the shroud slacken off even though they are very tight when moored.

Richard

 

[Daydream believer]

Interesting. Maybe there's a rigger on here who can offer an opinion?

I've got a cat now so my heeling is only about 5 degrees but I can still feel the shroud slacken off even though they are very tight when moored.

Richard

Cats are different, Although mine was only a dinghy the floats had a tendancy to "paddle" so there was no point in overtightening the rig
I suspect the same happens with some cats where the central area is not too large & thus not able to keep the floats running true

 

[William_H]

I would advise some care in setting total rig tension. What the rigger does not know is the stiffness of the hull and mast support. So while they advocate a significant part of max load for the wire to minimise fatigue failure they don't appreciate that the hull itself then is left under pressure and can bend. (Slow pastic deformation.) Many people find the toilet door jambs with excess rig tension.
Some people at my club with fractional rig have a highfield lever in the forestay and always take the tension off after a race.
For my opinion the wire tension is firstly a function of the relative tension of the stays to get the mast straight or for a fractional rig slightly bent middle forward. The rig should hold the mast straight when under pressure sailing. It is the shape of the mast and the straightness of the forestay that will affect sailing. Forestay is straightened by back stay tension. Back stay tension can also induce mast bend both good for stronger winds. But ease the backstay for light winds.
Re side stays I think the lee shrouds will always be slack when hard pressed. This due to wire stretch and hull deformation. IMHO it would be foolish to try to remove all slackness in lee shrouds. Just make sure that nothing comes lose when they are slack. Spreader attachment and clevis pins comes to mind. Sorry an opinion contrary to many. I acknowledge I may be wrong. olewill

 

[Daydream believer]

I was once caught in a huge squall wind that lasted 10- 15 minutes.
i had fulll sail up & so had to come round into the wind into a hove too position - I did furl the jib
The main flogged a lot & I was shocked to see the mast inverting - it was bending fore & aft quite quickly
This can lead to mast failure
As a result I tensioned the rig a lot more to produce slight pre bend & this should not happen again
I noticed a marked increase in performance when I began tightening the rig so experimented over the season to find the best setup for my boat
I think that the rig should not be too slack. - but to each his own

 

[wklein]

As I recall your boat is fractional with swept spreaders. Assuming this is true, stick backstay on hard, tension cap shrouds pretty hard. Then release backstay and tune lowers till you have slight static prebend. Difficult to explain as it's done mostly by feel.

 

[Heckler]

oo

I'm somewhat surprised by both your statements. I would have thought you could overtighten the rig and start to deform the hull if you kept going until you could not tighten any more. And when you are on a reach / beat at more than 15 or 20 degrees of heel you should feel the leeward shroud slacken as I suggested in #2. Obviously, it's a matter of degree but if the boat is heeling and the leeward shroud is still firm/taught then I would suggest that you have them too tight to start with.

Richard

They are getting mixed up I suspect. The rule is IIRC that the INNER stays should be slack when testing. Plus the bit about not breaking something is reasonable if using HAND tools. Put an extension on to the tool and all bets are off
s

 

[RichardS]

oo
They are getting mixed up I suspect. The rule is IIRC that the INNER stays should be slack when testing. Plus the bit about not breaking something is reasonable if using HAND tools. Put an extension on to the tool and all bets are off
s

But do you think the leeward shrouds should start to slacken off when well heeled over? Some posters suggest that they should remain tight.

Richard

 

[Heckler]

But do you think the leeward shrouds should start to slacken off when well heeled over? Some posters suggest that they should remain tight.

Richard

Will say in Aug when I check mine in action!
S

 

[Lakesailor]

What I used to do was tighten until I could no longer turn the spanner, you can't breakanything. If there is slack one side on a tack it is too loose

I'm somewhat surprised by both your statements. I would have thought you could overtighten the rig and start to deform the hull if you kept going until you could not tighten any more. And when you are on a reach / beat at more than 15 or 20 degrees of heel you should feel the leeward shroud slacken as I suggested in #2. Obviously, it's a matter of degree but if the boat is heeling and the leeward shroud is still firm/taught then I would suggest that you have them too tight to start with.

Richard

I've had both masthead and fractional rigs. Ultimately the mast step and hull shape may distort if the rigging is too tight. I've had to repair two small yachts with mast steps that had failed through over-tensioning. Perhaps bigger and more heavily built yachts can cope with high tensions.

But do you think the leeward shrouds should start to slacken off when well heeled over? Some posters suggest that they should remain tight.

Richard

Whilst I am not a fan of over-tensioning and do think the twanging method is very good for getting balanced tension (merely tightening as far as you can ignores issues such as varying resistance in
the rigging screws) on a fractional rig I would worry that a slack shroud is allowing the mast to be twisted by the taut shroud, with the spreaders having a forward pushing action. Having said that I let my last boats shrouds just free off a bit on the lee side when hard on the wind . It wasn't a powerful rig.
It's best really to find out what the design requires. Some racing dinghies have slack rigging by design.

 

[rwoofer]

I've got a Sun2000 and basically just tighten the shrouds, so that the leeward ones don't go visibly slack when powered up and so that there is a very small amount of pre-bend without the back stay on. Haven't raced against any other Sun2000s so don't really know whether that is fast or not, but generally seems to suit the boat.