B&R Rigs.
Dear mark,
I feel for you and the skipper!
In- mast furling, a bloody good idea on paper!
I had a similar tuning problem way back in 1973 when I was presented with what must have been one of the first B&R rigs to have been made by Kemps. Two spreader, deck stepped on an IOR one tonner, nowhere near as big as yours, it must be said.
Neither Kemps nor the owner of the boat knew what was needed and I was only 17 and two years into my apprenticeship when I was thrown in at the deep end with this funny looking rig that none of the other riggers in the loft wanted to touch.
Not knowing quite what I was doing, I did no pre-tensioning prior to stepping, just connected everything loose as per S.O.P. and then, with the rig in the boat, I found that I just could not get enough pre-bend in it to satisfy the sailmakers, despite what I thought of as the correct tuning method.
I was getting it too straight, completely the wrong end of the stick, so to speak.
What I was doing was tuning the caps and diagonals aloft, the same way as a "normal" discontinuous swept spreader rig, and then snugging-up the reverse diagonals to just take the slack out of them.
This "incorrect" method which produced a straightish mast for me, may work for your mast.
The provision of the backstay would seem to remove the normal B&R tuning requirements and flavour from this rig.
If you have no adjustment on the backstay, I would suggest fittting an hydraulic ram.
Then, as Cam says, you can load up the forestay for sailing and. hopefully, get a bit of bend in the rig to help the main's shape and then release the backstay to straighten the mast for furling.
Regards,
Joe Henderson.
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