What A Fool Believes

[Rattle]

What a test of a riggers skill! To boldly go where many have tried and failed.

I've just got a boat that some madman altered radically, and I mean that in a very respectful way. The previous owner actually stayed up nights dreaming of sailing a 19 foot boat to Hawaii. He took the hull of a day-sailer and put a cabin on it and a tiny little cockpit. And then he put double back stays, double (cutter) forestays, 7/8 and 3/8 shrouds, and spreaders, all with double sized wire for the original craft. What was an open boat day-sailer, is now an off shore surf board with a cabin. And the workmanship is all very good.

But! The thundering question here. How do I tension this rig?

The boat was originally speced to carry 1/8th inch wire. Now it has 1/4 inch wire on it. How much tension can I safely put on this forestay? there's about 16 inches of rake on the mast as it's standing now and the fore stay is very tight. The fore stay to the pointed end of the boat and the back stays to the corners of the transom form a nice little triangle. And all the shrouds all meet the same chain plate a foot or so behind the mast step. They are barely tight at all. Beneath the deck step is a well built glass deck supported by a curved 2x4 deck beam resting on top of a bulk head made of 1/2 inch ply. Not quite a keel stepped mast, but not purely deck stepped either.

I'm looking for suggestions here. Any one out there fancy themselves a good rigger?

The wire seems to be the trial version he put up to see if it would work. I can't really tell if it's bright galvanized or stainless. It's all plain swagged with Hershoff thimbles, and bronze turnbuckles that go to bronze jaws on one side and stainless jaws on the other. He even set up the back stays to serve as ham radio antennas with isolators in them, the kind you see on telephone poles. Everything is a little bit short and uneven. Getting a plumb bob to hang from the top of the mast in a straigh line with the boat is nie impossible and the buckles are different lengths on each side, while the measurement from the top to the chain plate is about equal.

So with the fore-stay balancing the pull of 8 other quarter inch wires, on a little 19 footer originally concieved to carry 1/8 standard day sailor rigging, Whatcha gonna do?????

I have no intention of taking this little boat off shore. But it seems a shame to think of scrapping this guys brain child. Where do I start?

Oh, The hull is a Rhodes 19. Probably an older hull. The Vin number says home built in 86, but that's probably when he took it out of the shop with it's mods.

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks

Rattle