Tie rod between mast step and coachroof?

[joliette]

Last winter I installed wooden floors with "wings" in the vicinity of the mast step, and this has helped considerably towards preventing Joliette's leaking garboards, although not completely. So this winter I am looking to take things further and intend to thoroughly recaulk the garboard seams and the seams in the next 2 or 3 planks up.

However, in Robert Clark's drawings of Joliette, a long tie rod is shown just forward of the mast, between the mast step and a steel reinforcing beam. This beam runs right round the coachroof, under the deck and into the top part of the planking, where it runs alongside the chain plates down the first 4 or 5 planks.

Is the function of such a tie rod to help reduce the downward force of the mast on the mast step, helping to prevent garboard strains? What type of high tensile material could I use, and how could I set this up under enough tension for it to help?

This tie rod must have been removed some 20 years ago when Joliette lost her original wooden mast. Would it be worth reinstalling a tie rod?

 

[Woodlouse]

I should say it probably would be worth putting back in. Designers such as Clarke don't tend to put unnecessary bits of ironwork in especially if it goes through the saloon.

I guess stainless would be the material to use, though a rigger would be able to either confirm that or suggest something more suitable. And I suppose you'd get tension by using a bottle screw or something like that when the shrouds are slack.

 

[Kukri]

One application for tie rods like this is familiar to me. They were often specified where halyards were belayed on deck adjacent to the mast, and in such cases the idea is to stop the deck (or coachroof where the mast goes through the coachroof) from being pulled up by the halyards.

They either go to the mast step or to the mast itself (in which case, of course, the must be removed and reinstalled with the mast).

A length of bronze rod is often used for the purpose, with a bottlescrew to tension it.

Joliette's case seems a little different since the rod relates to the ring beam.

I suspect its role is to stop the ring beam from distorting upwards in the middle as it gets squeezed by the sailing loads.

Anyway, yes, I'd definitely put it back.

 

[joliette]

Joliette doesn't have any halyards belayed on deck, and I think that was also true of the original wooden mast. The ring frame is just a few inches forward of the mast apperture and certainly has to take stress from the rig. The construction around the mast apperture is substantial and solid, showing no signs of movement. However, I think I'd like to see the tie rod back in for a "belt and braces" approach! There are some fixing holes in the ring frame and I think there may still be a fitting in the mast step, which will give me a starting point.