[ribbony]

The question is relevant to a 35' steel multichined cruising yacht, 7ton, dual spreader (continuous wire) rig, about 12mt high off the deck. Cutter rig with inner forestay.

The current wires are all 5/16 (8mm) with the only exceptions being the uppers x 2 and the innerforestay x 1, that are 1/4" (6.4mm). There are 4 x lowers (2 fore & 2 aft).

The cap and upper shrouds on each side join at the bottom on a bridel plate that is pinned to the chainplate.

The question/s is this:

In a rig like this (designed 25 years ago) as we re-rig this now, would all these wires be kept the same or are there thought out there that some take a bigger load than others and so the rig dimensions can be tuned a bit by reducing some and increasing others ?

Do the lowers x 4 need to be as big a wire as the cap shrouds ?

Does the forestay or backstay take a bigger load ? Roler furler on forestay.

Some comments would be appreciated, or descriptions of similar rigs.