Rigging Tension Triatic stay

[milfordman]

I have recently replaced the standing rigging on my ebtide 33. I bought a rigging tension gauge, and have set up all the rigging quite satisfactorily with the exception of the triatic stay and inner fore stay. Could any one please help with the correct proceedure and tension. The tritic stay is 19-1 5mm and all other rigging is 19-1 7mm the forestay has been set at 1500 lbf and the shrouds at 1000 lgf.

Thanks in advance.

 

[William_H]

I am not a great fan of putting a large static tension on rigging.
I think it is more important to look at what happens to the rig under load and under sail.
So the inner forestay is tensioned to provide a little curve of the main mast centre forward. This tension is often increased while sailing by an adjustment to give more bend so taking out some of the excess camber on the mainsail for strong winds.

I don't know much about triatic stay it seems essentially to replace the forward pull of the forestay if the mizzen were a sole mast.
As such the triatic will be reacting against the aft pull of the cap shrouds and so needs to be tight enough to maintain the mizzen mast top in place with enough tension on the cap shrouds to keep the mizzen straight and the lee shroud not too sloppy when pressed. The inners of the mizzen will need to be adjusted to keep the mizzen mast straight or lightly bent middle forward again under pressure.
In practice then because of the difficulty of adjusting the triatic you would set up the stays of the mizzen to suit the triatic length.

Looking from another point of view the triatic is just another part of the backstay for the mainmast if in fact you have a backstay for the mizzen. As such it will need to have enough tension to get that slight curve of the main mast when it reacts against the pull of the inner forestay.

I don't know if this helps at all. Like I said I don't go for setting tension according to a formular. Just look at the stay in terms of what is meant to do and how it reacts with the other stays. good luck olewill