What A Fool Believes

[Rattle]

Very sound advice. I've been reading low tech and simple as inexperienced or unskilled. And that was possibly wrong of me.

Trying to get the mast centered has been difficult. The forestay joins the boat just a little (1"-2") off of the center line. and the back stays run to the corners of the transome. I can't see any twisted blocks or fowled lines but I'll be damned if I can get the mast head to dead center. The kicker well sitsl off to the port side of the transom and the battery is also port side forward. And she's small. So a hundred pounds puts her off a bit to port. The shrouds are at 7/8ths so if I want a straight mast, I can't just pull her into line from the side chain plates. The two backstays are the key and I can't quite figure to tighten one or loosen the other. Or perhaps I should just slack them and work from the shrouds. Or build a tensioner.

It's not a cross, it's a pyramid. All the shrouds are coming down to the same chain plate a foot and a half behind the mast.

It's only one level of complexity further than your simple advice.

Thanks for reading and responding Ian.

[Matthew Sebring]

With the shrouds aft like that you needn't worry about the backstays. Slack them completely, your shrouds and forestay will support the mast. Use the shrouds to center the mast and then adjust the backstay legs. One problem you may encounter with wire that big is that the tension required to keep it from being downright sloppy will be considerably higher than the original tiny wires and you may banana the hull. This will be especially true of your backstays which are already going to be only lightly loaded (relatively) which is compounded by them being doubled.

[Rattle]

I've got heavy chain plates and heavy wires on a fully decked boat. The forces seem to be fairly well anticipated in the size and guage of the plates and the size of the chain plate bolts. So it's not simply a case of wrong wires. The hull and the chain plates have been beefed up too.

It looks like I'll be adding some chain to the backstays, or getting a hold of monster 16" turnbuckles. Or cutting new sails. Or making a whole new set of wires. I start to appreciate the art at a much deeper level today. Life is interesting. I'll get more detail on this posted tonight with pictures of the boat and plates.

I've been looking at the rig from the standpoint of it being untried and never quite finished by the previouse owner. I don't think I'm too far off the mark there. Pictures will help you get an idea of what I'm talking about.

I thank those who have read this. And I'm very pleased with the tips from Matt and Ian. Thank you both very much.