Rigging set-up

[Thistle]

I am renewing all the standing rigging on my Jaguar 23. The rig is 7/8 Bermudan with self-furling jib; the backstay splits a couple of metres above the deck and has a pulley tensioning system. The boat is not raced.

Can anyone give any advice, or point me to a good source of advice (in addition to the local riggers), on how best to set up the rig? In particular, what tension should I be aiming for (I have a tension guage available) and what, if any, mast prebend should I be aiming for? In what order should I tighten things to achieve these aims?

Thanks in advance for your help.

 

[PeteCooper]

If you find the Selden website there is a rig setup guide on that. Mast prebend is determined by the cut of the mainsail.

 

[William_H]

Well I have some ideas which are not always agreed with but here goes.
Back stay loose the forestay is set to give a vertical mast. The cap shrouds should be equalised in tension to give a vertical mast (sideways). This may be easiest done with intermediate side stays fairly loose. The tension should be such that there is a little mast bend middle forward with intermediates loose.
This mast bend is taken out by then tensioning the intermediate sidestays to get a straight mast both sideways (equal tension) and fore and aft collective total tension.
Many advocate a little middle forward mast bend when static. Just a little if you wish.

You should be able to put tension on the backstay to induce mast bend of perhaps 6 inches middle forward from top of mast to deck.
This bend is what is needed to flatten the mainsail inb strong winds. It should essentially match the way the mainsail was cut but an old stretched mainsail will need more mast bend in a blow.

Excessive static tension on the sidestays /forestay will only stress the hull when at rest but is still insignificant compared to the sailing loads. Some people at my club have a high field lever on the forestay and release the static pressure when finished sailing.

i don't believe a high static tension will significantly improve forestay tension when in strong wind. ie reduce forestay sag. This is a function of backstay tension and mast stiffness.

You say you don't want to race but surely you want the rig working in the best possible way.
besides..... I always reckon any 2 sail boats in sight of one another going in the same direction constitutes a race. unavoidable...
After sailing if you decide you want less weather helm increase the forestay length but for my experience this doesn't change helm loads much. Weather helm comes from excessive heel too much sail.
olewill

 

[Strathglass]

It can really only be set dynamically when the boat is in the water as it depends on the cut of your sail and on your mast.

Where in the Forth estuary do you keep your yacht?

I could soon come and set it up for you.

PM me if I can be of help.

I am on the north side of the Forth.

Cheers
Iain

 

[Salty John]

There is some information on the Jaguar boat owners site:
http://www.jaguaryachts.co.uk/index.html

And there is some information on tuning with the Loos tension gauge on my website.

 

[VicS]

The Selden "Hints and Advice" manual 595-540E mentioned by Pete Cooper is very good. Its bl00dy difficlt to find though.

It is here
but if the link does not work (I dont know what they've done to their website!)

Go here http://www.seldenmast.com/frameset.cfm?id=5564&randnum=490262315 Pick "Rigging instruction" from the drop down goto list, or simply scroll down the list to the "Rigging Instruction" section, and pick the English version of the pdf.

Save it to your hard drive.

 

[Thistle]

Many thanks to Vic and the others who have replied: the forum lives up to its reputation for quick and helpful responses!

I've downloaded and will study the Selden and Jaguar documents. I may have some time to do this: the riggers told me on the phone the other day that they now had all the parts needed (only 2 weeks after they had hoped to finish the job); they phoned later that day to say that their usual supplier couldn't provide marine quality wire and wouldn't have further supplies until the end of April. I just hope the alternative supplier they found can come up with the goods a bit quicker.

 

[MM5AHO]

I bought a new set of rigging this winter by email from 3i stainless and the service was excellent. Collected my old stays and made exact replicas. Only trimming I had to do was for the forestay furler, but that was easy.

By the way, on the offcut (8mm) I tested my 36" bolt cutters, and they ate in one swipe, but I noted that the strands flattened somewhat in cutting. Guess thats not an issue if the point is to cut the rigging free. Might be a different story doing this in a F10 storm !