Stay tension

[pcatterall]

I have used various methods to tension my stays
Recently they were set up by a proffesional.
They felt pretty tight when he had finished.
I later read that “ you cannot overtighten your stays using a ‘normal’ hand tool”
This would seem to suggest that using my maximum hand pressure on ( say) a tool with up to 8“ leverage my stays would not be overtightend?
Could this ‘rule’ be useful ?

 

[Norman_E]

I am pretty sure I could overtighten stays with a hand tool. When I use my Loos gauge to set tension I am having to use a fair bit of force on the coarse threaded metric turnbuckles, but the fine UNF threaded ones on the backstay are still pretty easy to turn when I have enough tension on. There are other methods than using a gauge, including measuring the amount of wire stretch with a six foot stick, but a decent tension gauge is the simplest reliable method.

 

[onesea]

I watched / helpped a professional rigger set up a twin spreader one design, a long time ago.

He set the forestay to the length he felt best for stated crew (talking mm here).. Then tightened the uppers till certain measurement when it came the lowers he tensioned them till the owner started to wince... Do not forget its not just the rig your tensioning but the structure of the boat... I have sailed a wooden boat where they way you knew the runners where tight was when the planks started weeping...

Depends on how long you plan to keep the boat....

 

[pvb]

A well-respected rigger told me that owners rarely tighten their rigs anywhere near enough. He also said that most rig failures are caused by vibration resulting from insufficient tension.

 

[lydiamight]

An ex colleague of mine who used to race an OOD34 used to tension the rigging until you could no longer close the door to the heads.

 

[ghostlymoron]

An ex colleague of mine who used to race an OOD34 used to tension the rigging until you could no longer close the door to the heads.

I hope he then backed it off a little!
It's generally thought that its fatigue through slopping about that causes failure rather than exceeding yield strength.

 

[Nereus_Stuart]

Here is exactly explained how to tention your rig. http://www.riggingandsails.com/pdf/selden-tuning.pdf
Basically you can use the "The folding rule method". You are measuring the stretch per 2 meter, were for a 1x19 wire 5% of breaking load
= 1 mm. My rigging is setup at 20% of the breaking load so 4mm.