Rig Tension

Norman I would had through as I do if you slacking the bottle screw X amount of turn on one side and the same on the other side you not going to be far off if you do them up the same come the spring .
I reset all mine rigging last year , as it not been done since the boat was new in 2009 .
I unscrew each bottle screw and then counted the turns and screw the other screw the other side up the same , make sure the mast I'd straight .
Once I did then up and I was happy , we took the boat out in 12 kts of wind first on one tack then on the other and tighten up any slackness , taken the Same amount of turns at the same time while on any tack making sure the mast stay up right .
This works for us ,
It's also what I have done with all my other boats in the pass .
Maybe one day I will buy a garge .

One other point , I don't know how true this is , I was once told by and experience rigger , just useing hand tools ( spanner and screw drive or wench ) it not possible to over tighten rigging . ( at the time we was talking about my rigging 8mm , not sure if the same would be with 4 or 6 mm )
On the other hand if you use a bar on the wench , it could easly be a very different story .

If the tensions are OK you can tape up the bottle screws to mark the settings before you slacken them.
 
>Did he charge extra for bending your hull?

Steel boat, perhaps that's why he did it without a gauge. As the rigging stretched when long distance sailing I did the same with no problems. Even if you tighten it as much as you can you can still feel a small amount of play in the rigging.
 
I've heard this said previously with a small qualification - which is "so long as you only use ordinary hand tools" which I interpret as normal length spanners, not metre long breaker bars...
 
Dom, that made I larf.
I've set up the rigging on my friends boat a couple of times using a borrowed Loos gauge. The difficulty I had was deciding the tension to use but once having got that the gauge was very easy to use - much easier than the tape and extension method. Gwylan Làs was an elderly Macerated and I chickened out of tensioning to the max as I was afeared that the hull and chain plates wouldn't stand it. I certainly wouldn't tension as hard as I could.
The tensions port and starboard are bound to equalise as the mast is in effect a pinned joint rather than fixed ended. Similarly, fore and aft.
My recent little boats don't justify a full tune, I just tension until slackness when beating is eliminated.
 
Dom, that made I larf.
I've set up the rigging on my friends boat a couple of times using a borrowed Loos gauge. The difficulty I had was deciding the tension to use but once having got that the gauge was very easy to use - much easier than the tape and extension method. Gwylan Làs was an elderly Macerated and I chickened out of tensioning to the max as I was afeared that the hull and chain plates wouldn't stand it. I certainly wouldn't tension as hard as I could.
The tensions port and starboard are bound to equalise as the mast is in effect a pinned joint rather than fixed ended. Similarly, fore and aft.
My recent little boats don't justify a full tune, I just tension until slackness when beating is eliminated.

They won't be the same fore and aft because the angles are different
 
>I've heard this said previously with a small qualification - which is "so long as you only use ordinary hand tools" which I interpret as normal length spanners, not metre long breaker bars...

That's correct, that's what the rigger and I did.
 
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