standing rigging

[Beattie]

Does anyone have any ideas on how tight the standing rigging on a 20ft clinker built mahogany on oak keelboat should be. More to the point - how do you tell it is as tight as it should be. Currently we are just twanging it and if it is too springy tightening it a bit.

Also should all the shrouds be equally tight?

 

[Mirelle]

The lee shrouds should be slack to the touch when under way.

If you have separate upper and lower shrouds, then "theoretically" the upper shrouds should be a littole tauter than the lower ones, but only very slightly. Otherwise, all the shrouds on the same side should have the same tension.

Too slack is better than too taut.

 

[andrewbodenham]

Assuming that your shrouds are attached to the chainplates with lanyards, in my opinion your current approach is probably correct. I have a similar boat, and we just tighten the lanyards until the slack in the shrouds is taken up - definitely not to "twanging" tension though. Too loose is probably better than too tight, and yes, the lee shrouds wil be slack under way.
Just back from a week on a 1930's gaff yacht on the Broads, where the custom is to have everything very sloppy indeed - but then there's not much wave action to deal with!

 

[cliffordpope]

There's a special reason for having slacker rigging on a yacht that constantly has its mast lowered and raised for bridges. If the shrouds are too tight it becomes very difficult to put enough force on the forestay to get the locking bolt or whatever is used through the tabernacle.