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Setting the tension on rigging, I have always used the method of changing tacks and adjusting tension until the lee shouds are equally taut, until they have tension but only a minimal amount. A couple of months ago I tried adjusting the tension on all the rigging using the "stretch" method, as described by Selden and other sources. This seemed to put WAY too much tension on the rigging. I was very concerned about having that much down-pressure on the mast, both from the aspect of bending the mast and deflecting the deck and beam that holds up my deck-stepped rig. It just seemed to be excessive to crank down that hard. Once the rig performs correctly with a straight mast, what's the point of additional wire tension? I took 4-6 full turns off my turnbuckles to get back to where they work perfectly well without all that pressure.