Great informative vid thanks so much!! Love your channel!!

That is really good and thank you for sharing

Thanks for the great tutorial!!

Thanks for sharing that man we all know I need to go through my rig

Good Video. On our Morgan 43 we appreciated that the chainplates were easy to remove, inspect, clean up, and rebed. The term wobbly on the leeward shrouds may give the wrong impression but they should be very slightly loose and if they are not the rig is over tensioned and adding unnecessary stress to the rig and boat. The only viable way to determine mast straightness is sighting up the mainsail track. A top halyard, topping lift or something attached to the masthead should be stretched to a point near the chainplates, like a molded recessed area for a lifeline base, and compared to the same area on the opposite side; if the length is the same on both sides, the mast is centered and the boat will handle in a similiar manner on the opposite tack, if you find yourself in the unfortunate situation of needing to tack.

Thanks for the tutorial, I am getting ready to remast my sailboat Illusions and this will give me a way to check to make sure the yard has it set right. Really enjoy your videos and of course "King Arthur" !!!

A way to see if your mast is centered is to tie or tape the end of a tape measure to the end of your main halyard and tie off the halyard a few feet above the boom. Then you can stretch the tape measure and halyard to either side of the boat and measure to the same opposite point, say a chainplate. As long as the opposite points (port and starboard) are exactly the same you should get a good idea if the mast is centered.

Great video thanks it helps a lot 👍

Thanks for the video. My boat is small so easy for me to also measure to make sure mast is centered.

Awesome. Thank you. BTW, we bought our boat at Boot Key Harbor a couple years ago and sailed her home to New Orleans.

Thanks for the good info!

great tutorial ! To me with this method you can get HIGHER precision than with the 300$ gauge, as reading error is reduced... BRAVOOO

Thanks. This helps a lot

Great tips!

Hello from the future. Thanks for this. Am going to give it a go!

Yes at 4.57 yep that's a well tuned rig !

Good tip.

as I have read, normally you start from upper shrouds then going down as the closest to the deck have to be least tightest.

100% correct

Looong Live The KING!!!

I'll bet Kelly is glad she has such a competent boatswain.

I worked for 16 years for a fiberglass sailboat builder. We wrote instructions in the manuals on how to tune the rig. There will always have to be some deflection of stays and shrouds as you are dealing with flexible materials throughout the entire boat. Here is what the manual said as a general way to gauge tension on rigging. Backstay and forestay should be able to flex 1 to 2 inches max if you push on them when standing on the deck. Upper and Intermediate shrouds also 1 to 2 inches. Forward lower shrouds about 3 inches. Aft lower shrouds slightly loser than forward, with max at 4 inches. These instructions were approved by the marine architect and engineer working with the builder. Of course, you can also call a local rigging shop to come and tune the rig and/or advise you on doing it yourself. Also it looks like the turnbuckle body you have is bronze which when exposed to seawater will corrode to a small degree. You might consider using antiseize compound when reassembling to make it easier to keep the parts adjustable. Permatex makes one. Another compound you could use instead is Form-a-gasket also made by Permatex. There are various types but get the one that is used as a gasket sealer which never hardens. It is great stuff to keep on hand for various purposes. I have used it in place of an oil pan gasket when I couldn't get the correct one. It was easy to apply and never leaked. It works great on plumbing parts and is impervious to many materials that flow through pipes, tho I think it may dissolve in diesel oil - you would have to check the instructions on the package - plus they make many different types of gasket compounds so they may have one that seals in the presence of diesel. Also, be aware of mounting hardware to aluminum parts using stainless steel fasteners. I have see stainless steel fasteners break under torsion when trying to remove an aluminum cleat that was mounted on a mast without some type of material to isolate the metals (stainless bolts and aluminum parts). You can use antiseize or possibly even silicon sealant, or better a polysulfide bedding compound like Lifecaulk by Boatlife. By the way, never, ever use a polyurethane compound to mount anything, especially, on fiberglass. We tried it at the boatyard when we were getting lots of complaints about leaks. It worked great until a change order came through to move some hardware. It not only sealed the hardware to the deck but bonded it so strongly that the fiberglass on the deck tore when we tried to remove the hardware. Going to a polysulfide bedding compound solved the leak problems and made removal possible without damage to the boat.

Is this rule of thumb good for all cable sizes? I have approx 1/8" cables on my Catalina 22

Great Tips. Maybe, while your moving around see if you can borrow a gauge & fine tune it. The King 👑 has to make a spot in every video ‼️👍👑⛵️🐕. Vinny 🇺🇸

Why not use tape at the top instead of a zip tie? Just curious.

I dont know how you can make sure the mast is not listing because dont you have to make the same number of turns on the port and starboard turnbuckle so just looking for that 1/8" stretch must be done incrementally from side to side tightening the turnbuckle the same number or turns or the same fraction of the turn on each side

rule of thumb: when beam reaching in around 6bft: mast should be straight, leeward shrouds should become wobbly.

Borrow a loos gauge and tune the rig according to your sail makers specs. You’ll extend the life of your sails and speed of your boat.

thought I'd at least get a shoutout :-) .

I’m trying to do the same with mine but is not working 🤦🏼‍♀️🥲

Well seemed the same to me ,the king moved slightly quicker methinks

Like to see one of these sailing channels kick the aluminum over board, and use a log and hemp rope.

eh, in the end you were only off by 1/16"!

Your shrouds should NEVER become wobbly. Metal fatigue is what destroys rigging, not over tension. Shaking a wire back and forth rapidly will ruin it. You posted a video about Second Chance which sounds like it got hit with a tornado in the lead bands of Irma. Sails blew out, rigging was fine. You can do the engineering calculations yourself but you'll find that most rigging is over- designed. Tighten it up. If it is ever wobbly, it's too loose.

Hmm, a repeat?

I would think 3-500.00 for a 100k investment is nothing for a precise tension on a rig! It is your life and investment!

1st comment

You shouldn’t stick a screwdriver through the turnbuckle barrel to turn it.

Wrong, if your stays are loose on the lee side of mast while sailing in any direction than there is not enough tension.