[jfranta]

Hi Gary, yes as Brion says it depends on the conditions you are in, but in general you want the leeward shrouds to just start loosening at your reef point with full sail (however you define it) As far as the dux goes, the only issue you need to worry about is creep, we base that on pretension, since creep is a time based phenomena. Your rig will see the pretension load for most of its life, depending on how much you sail. (Sadly most boats are above 95% of the time with pretension as the rig load). Our creep target is 0.1" per year or less (1' in 10 years). For a 50 foot shroud in 9 mm that is about 1200 lbs constant tension. For a 50 foot shroud in 7 mm that is about 700 lbs constant tension. So use that as a reference, interpolating or extrapolating for length as needed and keep the loads below the limit and you will have no creep issues. My Guess is for your boat you will have no issues staying below 700 lbs on your 7 mm line and you could proably tolerate more as I am sure your length is shorter than 50 ft. If you want to send me your exact lengths I can do the calculations and get you an exact number.

Caution: if you are one of the few who really spend alot of time sailing then dynamic loads need to be figured in to the creep equation.

Hope that helps.

John Franta, Colligo Marine.