History
Hi,
Way back in the last glacial epoch, when I was starting in rigging, I would often come across the oddity you describe. I knew that, with the rig configuration you describe, the lowers should be sharing less than half the total load, but I'd still find uppers smaller than lowers.
With the help of research, hard thinking, and a very seasoned, generous yacht designer (standing on the shoulders of giants), I concluded that what I was seeing was an artifact of pre-masthead-Bermudian rig practice. See, loads were distributed differently in gaffers and many early Bermudian rigs, with the higher loads lower on the mast. So uppers and jibstay, meant for light-air sails, were lighter wires. As rigs developed, even some otherwise very competent designers lagged behind in adjusting scantlings. But then, rig design has always been a weak spot for naval artichokes.
Regarding your fine boat, remember that it was designed by a fairly larval Bob Perry. He has since gone on to approach godhood in all design matters, and one part of that has been to make more sensibly-scantlinged and -configured rigs. Witness, for instance, his abandonment of aft-led intermediates since the days of the Valiant.
You could check with Bob, but I'd be strongly inclined to leave the uppers at 3/8", make the lowers 5/16", and throw away those aft-led intermediates, replacing them with HM runners, led to a winch.
Oh, and remember that there are otherwise-configured rigs where it still makes sense for uppers to be smaller than lowers. Bermudian included. Load distribution is an important item.
Fair leads,
Brion Toss
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