Old wheel
Hello,
As you might imagine, this is not exactly a wheel that needs reinventing; but it is one of the wonders of traditional work that its refinements are so easy to lose, living, as they do, in peoples' hands.
Start with the arrangement in the 'Marlingspike Sailor', with a tackle on the shroud. One crewmember, outboard, sweats on the lanyard part coming from the knot. A second crewmember then sweats on the next part, inboard, just as the first one releases their load (without letting go, or they'll fall in the water). And so on, until the tackle can take up what is gained. Repeat before jamming a cone of wood, with a groove down one side for the rope, into the last hole, from inboard. Release the purchase, hitch the lanyard to the throat (a Ring Hitch that starts by crossing the face of the upper deadeye), remove the plug, and go on to the next shroud. You'll probably make several rounds before the shrouds are evenly tensioned.
And no, the same tuning principles apply here as for any other boat. I have too, too often heard people say that you should tune traditional boats slack. The favorite rationale seems to be that, if it is a wood boat, a too-tight rig will cause the boat to hog. Interestingly, slack-tuned boats are at least as likely to hog. Also, of course, powerboats hog. No rational connection here, unless you are extremely overtensioned, and frankly this is hard to accomplish with deadeyes. And a slack tune makes for poor performance and big shock loads.
Fair leads,
Brion Toss
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