Setting up the standing rigging

[bcooke]

When I raised the mast three weeks ago I set up the shrouds with enough tension to hold the everything in place but I was trying to avoid the common overtightening syndrome that comes with being unsure as to exactly how tight "tight" should be.

I had my boat out for three days of sailing to work out some of the bugs and with the light winds everything in the rigging seemed fine except the aft leeward shrouds flopped around a bit. I tightened them up a turn or so. When the wind jumped up to 15 or so knots and I had the full canvas flying both the leeward shrouds got pretty sloppy. (Yes, I did reef, and just as everyone says about Tritons, everything was a lot better with a little less mainsail.)

So, the main question of the day is, "How much is enough tension on the shrouds" or put more simply, "How do I set up the shrouds correctly?"

-Britton

[Figment]

As a baseline starting point, I start by setting things up so that the leeward shrouds are juuuuuuuuust slack when going upwind in a good breeze. As one of my sailing mentors phrased it, "When you lean against the shrouds while peeing to leeward, they shouldn't be loose enough to affect your aim"

Adjust from there to get whatever rake or bend you need in the mast to get decent sail shape. This entertaining task can last all season long if you're a nitpicker like me. (just imagine if I had forward lowers!!)

I'm sure that some triton owner somewhere has all the proper loos guage numbers written down, but again I'd only use those as a starting point. Even when brandy-new, these weren't "one-design" boats. Each hull is going to deform just a little bit differently under load.

[Tim]

Forget the Loos gauge. That's designed for hardcore class race boats, which often have a certain specification (and even then there is difference from boat to boat). For our purposes, it has no purpose.

So far, you've done everything the right way. The Triton spar need not (and should not) be set up with drum-tight rigging for the sort of sailing most of us do. Set up the shrouds nice and hand tight, but not much more, at least to start. The lee shrouds will always be somewhat slack when beating in any sort of a breeze. I'd say Mike's way of phrasing it is just about right! You don't want to see a huge amount of slop, but some slackness is normal and can never be eliminated unless you bend the boat into a banana with rig tension.

At rest, sight up the mainsail track and look for twists and bends. You can adjust the shrouds as needed to correct these and set the spar up more or less straight (at rest).

When you're sailing, go forward and sight up the mast on each tack when you're sailing in 10-15 knots of breeze. In the most basic terms, you're looking to see that the mast doesn't fall off to leeward, or doesn't have any other odd bends. Always sight up the aft side of the mast, with the track; sighting the forward side, with the rounded profile, complicates things. Depending on the original tension, you might even see the masthead pointing to windward rather than leeward on one tack or the other. Obviously glaring errors like this should be corrected by slackening one side and/or tightening the other. You'll probably need to sight the mast for a while on both tacks, make some adjustments, and then do it again to see how you did.

With forward lowers, you can better tune the rig, but only in a fore-and-aft direction. One set of lowers is all you need to adjust the athwartships position of the center part of the mast. Once you get the spar generally straight, both at rest and when sailing on both tacks, you need do nothing more. The rest would all be fine-tuning to optimize sail shape and so forth--fun, but not strictly necessary. Play to your heart's content...or not at all.

A properly tuned spar makes a difference, for sure. But not that much, as a cruiser. As long as the stays hold the mast in column, you'll avoid any nasty problems. With forward lowers, you might find that pulling the spar slightly forward will help your mainsail shape.

[bcooke]

When you lean against the shrouds while peeing to leeward, they shouldn't be loose enough to affect your aim

Great advice. That has to be the most memorable metaphor for rig tension I have ever heard.

[quoteYou don't want to see a huge amount of slop, but some slackness is normal and can never be eliminated unless you bend the boat into a banana with rig tension.[/quote]
It sounds like I can safely tighten the main shrouds as much as my bare hands can do then (no Popeye forearms in my gene pool) without worrying about putting too much stress on the rigging or mast support.

Thanks guys,

-Britton

[George ( C&C 40 )]

Hi All,


As a racer I can tell you that we were able to pick up well over a minute a mile by running the standing rigging at 20% of breaking strength using one of those huge Loos professional series rig tensioners. We have #17 Navtec rod rigging so 20% means we are running about #3500 pounds of tension. In 12 knots of wind that equates to a tiny bit of softness in the leeward shrouds but certainly nothing that would effect anyone's "aim". For cruisers this may be a little tight, but on a ten mile race course that is over 10 minutes corrected time and is something I just can't pass up.

One word of caution about running the rigging too loose. As the wind picks up the leeward shrouds get really slack and start flopping around. The shock loading when they snap tight during a tack can be extreme. Over time, that level of cyclic loading can cause a rigging failure. I would think that 10% of breaking strength would probably be a good compromise for a cruiser. My own opinion at least.


George Jones

[V-Class]

Setup too soft?? keel stepped mast though.

[FloatingMoneyPit]

I recently saw the Brion Toss video "Tuning Your Rig".
For single lowers, he says to go for 10-12% of breaking strength in the lowers, 15% in the uppers. How do you know when you're there? The lowers are tight enough when you can tap them with a wrench and hear an audible bass tone, not just a loose wobble. The uppers should sound a little higher in pitch (a minor third, for the musicians out there). Obviously you should hear equal pitches port and starboard on corresponding shrouds (=> equal tension). Get the lowers set first to center the mast on the boat, then do uppers. Fine-tune per everyone's advice above when you get underway.

[bcooke]

For single lowers, he says to go for 10-12% of breaking strength in the lowers, 15% in the uppers. How do you know when you're there?

That is my problem too - especially since my rigging is all looking pretty old and suspect. Not old or suspect enough to be seriously worried but I am not about to dip the spreaders in the water either. I want to play it safe until I can get new shrouds up this winter. That video sounds interesting. I would like to hear that audible bass tone on tape before I tried to guesstimate what an audible bass tone actually sounds like.

-Britton

[Brian C.]

In my experience, every season I seem to get the rig tuned to what I deem "perfect" about two weeks before hauling out for the winter! Admittedly, I probably fuss over it too much.

I have also seen the Brion Toss video on tuning your rig and found it helpful (although, maybe too much information for a straight forward crusing rig). I am not sure I would recommend buying it but it is definitely worth borrowing or renting sometime.

For what its worth (and I know it is off topic), Brion Toss makes a fid for splicing double braid that works great and, if you have many splices to make, is worth the $50. I haven't been able to come up with a good excuse for buying my own one yet, but as soon as I can justify the expense I will do so.

[The Good Goose]

There is an excellant article on tuning a triton rig on the triton website. I think it is in the going faster section but I'm not sure. I used it to tune my rig this summer and I was happy with the results. The four inch forward bend of the mast induced by the jumper struts really allows you to get a tight headstay. I never understood how all the parts of the rig functioned until I read that article and tuned my rig according to its instructions. I can still point higher on one tack so I'm sure there's room for improvement. It's a great place to start though.

Brock Richardson