E 23-2 forestay backstay & shrouds tensions?

R

Ranch hand

Junior Member
I am starting to adjust the tension on my stays and shrouds. I had an incident where a gust of wind loosened the opposite shroud so much it came off my spreader. I now want to fine tune it when I drop my mast later this month. I will buy a torque wrench when I drop it. If anyone has the specs for this it would be much appreciated. Some tips for dropping the mast would be great too!!

Thank you,
Corbett
 
Shelman

Shelman

Member III
Blogs Author
Your cap shrouds should be seized to the spreader caps with seizing wire or something comparable so they cant come loose. (I can upload pictures if that isn't clear) and the cap shrouds should be tightened to the point that they just begin to slack when the rail is down hard but not so much that they ever wobble around loose.
The lower inline shrouds should be somewhat looser than the cap shrouds otherwise you could stress your mast at the center and eventually crack it. Imagine if it was held rock solid at the center but the top could move around. it will not stress your stick as much however if the center can move just a bit with the top held securely in column. you can adjust it so that when your rail is down on either tack (and you want to check both tacks) your mast is straight and there is not undue tension on the rigging anywhere. If your boat has been on the hard it will take a while for the hull to settle into its shape for a few weeks and you may come back to the boat after adjusting everything a week prior and need to do it all over again.
The fore-stay is often stet/adjusted at the appropriate length and then the back-stay is used to tension the Fore-stay. if you have a masthead rig then the for and aft stays will be under the same tension. If you have a Fractional rig like I do then your for-stay will be under slightly less tension and you will be limited in how much you can tension the fore-stay by the stiffness of the mast. Unless you have swept back spreaders, in which case you can use them to help tension the top end.
if you have lower aft side stays on a fractional rig they should be used only to limit the forward bow of the mast and should be just almost loose when the back-stay tensioner is not is use. (at the dock)
Does your mast base have a hinged step or will you need to use a crane to lift the mast off?
 
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