Setting standing rigging tension

[dom]

It is a big rig on a solidly built boat. But masthead with spreaders square to the centreline and forward and aft lowers so pretty simple to set up.
Talking over pictures of the new jib with the sailmaker at the boat show their first comment was "the stay is not tight enough". Checked it and they were right.
Also trying to get everything set up right for this season's new toy - a new mainsail!

Certainly is; your boat looks like a real peach on the wind and what with new sails now. Well can you collect the bar orders before setting off to Chbg this year?

Feeling a bit left out as everyone except me seems to have shiny new sails!

 

[pvb]

Having had the mast off for the first time (for me, anyway) on my Westerly Merlin, I'm keen to getting the rigging tension right after the yard put the mast back on (hopefully, and weather permitting, in the next few days). I've downloaded instructions on this from Selden, and I reckon I should be able to do this OK (I'm a metallurgist, so I've some experience of tensile testing, mechanical properties of metals, etc.).

One of the best things you could do is ask a rigger to set it up for you, explaining what he's doing as he does it. It wouldn't take long and needn't be costly. There may be a rigger onsite at the marina, if not arrange to see one when they're already coming to the marina, to minimise travel costs. One of the biggest reasons for rig failure is insufficient tension, because owners rarely tighten the rigging sufficiently. When I had new rigging on my old boat, I got a rigger along to set it up and it was a revelation - much tighter than I'd ever had it before.

 

[LONG_KEELER]

One of the best things you could do is ask a rigger to set it up for you, explaining what he's doing as he does it. It wouldn't take long and needn't be costly. There may be a rigger onsite at the marina, if not arrange to see one when they're already coming to the marina, to minimise travel costs. One of the biggest reasons for rig failure is insufficient tension, because owners rarely tighten the rigging sufficiently. When I had new rigging on my old boat, I got a rigger along to set it up and it was a revelation - much tighter than I'd ever had it before.

I think that's very good advice.

I had a boat that was fractional, swept back spreaders, bendy mast etc and the rigger talked me through everything as he did it. He tuned without a tension gauge and explained what and why all the way through.

As mentioned, money well spent and not mega bucks.

 

[MagicalArmchair]

I undertook this with Triola about a year ago (and got myself a Loos gauge, you need to get one, a very exciting piece of kit and the best money you’ll spend) and had the same doubts about tightening up my rig to Seldens suggestions on my old 1970s 30 footer. I did get lots of advice suggesting peoples masts haven’t fallen down and they have only ever sucked their teeth and looked up the mast and been at circa 5% for fear of their boats falling apart. I levelled this at Selden and had a delightful, frank, and rather amusing reply that cleared it up for me. I tensioned her up, following their guide to the letter, and never looked back. My stiff, 1970s, heavy built boat has not snapped in half (yet... there is always time...).

Dear Mark,

The 15% is the figure we use when calculating the amount of support the wire gives the spar.

Less tension than that means the mast is not correctly supported. This figure is used by almost all mast manufacturers as a safe tuning level as it means that the mast is effectively supported throughout the wind range. It is a catch all mast tune, and you can sometimes use a softer tune such as when racing etc but

It is highly unlikely that you could ever over tension your masts rigging. I am not aware of any GRP boats were the mast has fired through the bottom of the boat because of over tension – however I know of lots and lots of masts that have failed because the lack the required support.

Please be wary of advice on forums, I was a forum ‘expert’ until I worked here and realised that I actually didn’t know very much – Selden have been making masts and standing rigging since 1960 and I am fairly comfortable that we know how to safely tune a mast.

If you are still concerned then I would suggest taking the boat to either Fox’s Marina or Evolution rigging (http://seldenmast.com/en/services/find_your_retailer/by_country.html) or another Selden agent.