Newbie rigging woes

[YodaMouse]

In February I bought a Seidelmann 25', my first sailboat. It took this long to get it into sailing shape, (she had a 1' hole on its port side,) and the only thing left is to attach the side shrouds and take her out onto the lake for its first sail.

Here's my problem. I've checked the forestay, backstay and shrouds and found that all of the turnbuckles are maxed out on the tension-there is no room left to further tigthen them. The tension on the shrouds seem okay, as well as the forestay. The backstay however seems a little looser.

I had a local girl who owns a sister ship to this look at it and she said the tension seemed appropriate for my boat.

My question then is, what should I do? Was she right, is it okay? Or should I fix this myself? I've already spent $3K on the boat so I'd like to DIY if possible.

Anyway, sorry to bother 'ya all with noob questions...

Thanks,

Andy

[tommays]

While i dont know your boat

Does the mast sit on the deck outside or inside ?

Something has to be going on for the shrouds to run out of travel

[jbondy]

+1 If the mast is deck stepped, there may have been some compression of the deck that reduced the overall height of the rig. That would be an easy explanation and maybe not all that hard to fix, depending on the cause. The photo in the brochure at the opwner's site looks like it has a compression post below. Sometimes these are supported in a way that can be compromised, such as on a cross-member brace.

[FSMike]

Originally Posted by YodaMouse

-- the only thing left is to attach the side shrouds --

-- all of the turnbuckles are maxed out on the tension-there is no room left to further tighten them. The tension on the shrouds seem okay, as well as the forestay. The backstay however seems a little looser.

Andy

If you haven't attached all of the standing rigging to the boat how do you know what the tension is?

[75R20]

IF everything else is as it should be, and IF the mast step is at the proper place, If the compression post is right, IF the stringers are in good shape, and IF the rest of the rig is right (you get the Idea....).....then you could replces the lower mounting points with a sta-lock or other DIY or put-together, re-uesable rigging end for the turnbuckle and shorten the rig that way. If you have to replace the rigging later, these could be reused if undamaged.
Best of luck
Kary
S/V Mariah
#49080

[YodaMouse]

Originally Posted by FSMike

If you haven't attached all of the standing rigging to the boat how do you know what the tension is?

I have two pairs of shrouds, upper and lower, and the uppers are properly tensioned-according to the girl I spoke to. She said to tighten the lowers to the same tension as the uppers, being careful not to produce any slack on the uppers. Her advice was that to take the boat out during a light day and to adjust everything then. She explained the things to look for.

Also, there IS a mast support post below decks which seems 100% solid. (I can get pictures of everything if that helps.)

Anyway thanks so much for all the help. I'm going out tomorrow to do all this so I'm super appreciative of the support here!

[YodaMouse]

Fixed the rigging last night. Yay!

[calden]

Yoda -

Just curious... what did you need to do to fix things?

[YodaMouse]

The turnbuckles on one side were maxed out while the other side had some slack. I evened them out. Then I centered the mast using the jib halyard as a measuring tool.

Everything came out perfect except for the backstay, which had a lot of flop in it. So I *fixed* it by zip-tying it to the rear aluminum hand rail, removing the slack from it.

Before you yell at me, I KNOW this is not right. I know this is wrong. However I am also very very broke. Also, it seemed to work just fine. When I pulled up the main sail in 10 - 15 knot winds, all was well. No flexing, no bending, nada.

I'm thinking that until I have money to replace the steel cable altogether, I will fabricate a temporary tensioner and affix it to the hand rail.

[75R20]

Originally Posted by YodaMouse

Everything came out perfect except for the backstay, which had a lot of flop in it. So I *fixed* it by zip-tying it to the rear aluminum hand rail, removing the slack from it.

Before you yell at me, I KNOW this is not right. I know this is wrong. However I am also very very broke. Also, it seemed to work just fine. When I pulled up the main sail in 10 - 15 knot winds, all was well. No flexing, no bending, nada.

SInce you know it's NOT right, and you must know that "Zip ties" are not as strong as the backstay cable is.................

Be very careful what wind you sail in, as you could get the mast pumping and snap the rig in half with the backstay in this condition.
I wouldn't sail it period as if you are broke now........How are you going to afford it when you need a mast and all new rigging or worse...someone gets hurt.
And I'm not yelling..........

Kary
S/V Mariah
#49080