It’s always fun when you get a package with new gear in the mail. Especially when it is something that will make doing the job at hand fun, informative, and a little easier. I ordered a Loos PT-3 Pro tension Gage (you can see one here) and a ATN Topclimber bosun’s chair. You can see the chair here.

Courtesy of loosnaples.com

I wanted to get the Loos Gage for not only tuning my new synthetic rig but also to measure what I had for tension in my present rig. I had tuned my rig the old fashion way. Push, pull, grunt,  scratch … and guess. I do have a bit of experience doing rigging work, but I have never had it put to a quantitative test before. My final adjustments on my present rig were done under sail. Tighten to the point so the leeward shrouds were snug.

What a surprise I received when I measured the tension on my present rig. My shrouds were tensioned near perfect.

1. Lowers 1220 lbs
2. Cap shrouds 1960 lbs
3. Intermediates 1540 lbs
4. Headstay (stay’sl stay) 1660 lbs

The BIG surprise was the forestay and backstay. My forestay was at 300 lbs and my backstay was at 250 lbs. No wonder she wasn’t sailing to weather well! She had to have had a lot of forestay sag. This really messes up the ability to point. why was I so loose? I don’t know. I have come up with a number of reasons why…maybe. I just don’t know.

On Loos’ web site they say a good starting point for forestay is 1600 lbs, shrouds at 1000 lbs. You usually want the longer shrouds (cap) set higher than the shorter shrouds (lowers) because of the stretch. This way when the load comes on the rig, your mast stays in column. Loos also points out that most people do not tension their rigs enough for fear of “breaking something”. They also point out that the America’s cup boats tighten their rigs as much as the structure of the boat will allow.

A special note on using the Loos Gage on 316 wire. The Loos Gage is designed to be used on 302/304 stainless wire. Since 302/304 is stronger size for size than 316. The concept behind the Gage is based on the strength of the wire, not the actual size. So you can use it on 316 wire. You just need to find what size wire in 302/304 is equal in breaking load to the size 316 you have. For example – on the tension chart from Loos for the Gage it has listed the tension readings for 9/32 302/304 wire. The breaking strength of that wire is 10,300 lbs. The breaking strength for 5/16 316 is rated at 10,600. So I would use the readings for 9/32 302/304 for my 5/16 316 because the strengths are about equal. For the synthetic rigging the Gage will not work as far as measuring tension because the breaking strength is so large and is off the Loos charts. So it will only give me a reference point. I emailed Loos about this and they confirmed my thoughts.

Why is all this so important to me. It has a lot to do with the way I’m going to set up my roller furling. That post comes next.

Ok, I have to go clean my dinghy. Remember that a ship is known by her boats!

Gary

One manufacturer has my interest, Dynex Dux. I will include some links, but here is a recap of the advantages/disadvantages of this incredible line:

1) Can replace size for size (my wire is 5/16 and the Dynex Dux has a min breaking strength of 25,000 lbs vs. about 10,000 for wire). Although other considerations my call for up sizing by one size.

2) Most people are using deadeyes and lanyards for this stuff. Can you imagine deadeyes on a BCC…oh sweet! They make machined aluminum ones, but you can use the wood ones too. This stuff can not take a staylock or swage. You can also use turnbuckles if you wish.

3) Large savings in weight aloft. My rig is 5/16 316 w/splices. Using this line (it floats) will cut out 65-70 lbs aloft from my rig. Jeez, I’m getting so excited I’m starting to wiggle. This will be a HUGE boost to the performance of the boat.

4) Very high chafe resistance. They use it for butchers aprons and drag lines on fishing boats. You can read more in the links I’ll post. One guy is a commercial fisherman, after using the line for 3 years and seeing how well it held up he decided to rig his trimaran with it.

5) They are still testing the UV resistance. Right now they feel it will be well north of 5 years. But it is so inexpensive and easy to splice up yourself, doesn’t seem to be a prob. For me here in the salty/sunny Caribbean I won’t have to worry about corrosion. Also no fatigue.

6) It stretches less than wire. but there is “creep”. So for the first year you would have to tune 2-3 times, but then it would be fairly set. Then maybe once a year. I need to do a little more research in this area. Since this line has SO much strength to it they say to size for creep as opposed to strength.

Here are some links:
This is the forum over at Brion toss’s website.[briontoss.com] I believe Brion re-rigged his own boat with synthetic.

And a great thread on the stuff at the cruisers forum.
[www.cruisersforum.com]

The people I will be using for the hardware, including a continuous line furler Precourt Rigging

Gary

Anybody wanna race?

Hi once again,

At first I wanted to add roller furling to Shanti. Then I discovered that my rig is 20 years old. This is a photo of my wire/splice/turnbuckle.

No matter how much you clean, I have found that when stainless just wants to rust all the time, it is approaching the problem stage. After all this is 20+ years old. So it was a necessary decision to re-rig. As far as the weight of the rig goes, I have 5/16 wire that is doubled over at the splice, plus a solid bronze thimble. Also my wire is over-sized. Plans call for a combo of 1/4 and 9/32 wire. I’m sure the 5/16 was used because 316 stainless is not as strong as 304. Still a lot of weight aloft! This re-rig should save me 70+ lbs aloft.

I suppose I could get in a do an inspection, but I have decided to re-rig anyway at this point to go along with my ideas for the new furler setup (more on this later). I will do an inspection of the chain plates. I will be replacing them with bronze, but thats another project. I HATE STAINLESS! pita @$#&*^

Gary

Now for some of the details. This will cover some of the minor obstacles that I will need to deal with. It all has to do with fitting the new hardware required to make use of the synthetic rigging. What is being used is very old technology. Deadeyes and lanyards (I think this is very cool) as standard termination like Sta-loks and Swaging doesn’t work. They are a little bigger in dimension than turnbuckles, particularly the width.

1) I have external chain plates. This is a GOOD thing. This obstacle involves fitting 2 deadeyes on one chain plate that was designed to take 2 turnbuckles. I will probably have to have a plate fabricated that is wide enough to accommodate the 2 deadeyes side by side. Then bolt them onto the chainplate where the 2 turnbuckles attached before. If anyone has a simpler solution, please speak up. Here is what I’m talking about.

2) I hope I can fit the upper terminators that are about twice as wide as the toggles for the wire into the mast tangs. There seems to be extra space, but it will be a tight fit. The obstacle I have is again where 2 have to go (fore and aft lowers). There width is the problem. So far I have 3 solutions. Have a wider custom mast tang built (expensive). Purchase 2 single mast tangs to fit over the one bolt. Then angle them apart. This may give me enough room for the 2 separate terminators. or finally use one continuous line for the 2 lowers with a terminator spliced in the middle. If I go this route I will probably up size to compensate for the load of 2 stays being applied to the one splice (brummel). below is a chart of thimbles from Precourt in Canada of the thimbles for the upper ends. I will probably use the TE16 and 18 thimbles below. This will give me a 5/1 ratio the Dux needs. The thickness is going to be a probalem, but I am working with Erik Precourt on this.

Courtesy of Precourt Rigging

Here is a photo of the double tang that has to be modified/replaced for the lowers.

Even to be able to use the thimbles for the wire, there was an adaption made.

Ok, everything else should be fairly straight forward. Then next post will start to deal with how I’m going to rig my new roller furling system. For now I’m going to fix some lunch.

Cheers,

Gary

Hi All,

This has been a bit of a journey already. I started out by looking for a roller furling solution for Shanti. The bowsprit is just a little to long to safely work out at the end in heavy weather. In fact I think there is only 2 BCC’s left with hanked on sails, Shanti and Elizabeth. During my research I came across Synthetic rigging. it’s line instead of wire. I also discovered that my rig is the original from 1988. The good thing is the wire is eye spliced around solid bronze thimbles, about as strong and reliable as you can get. The bad thing is it’s HEAVY and really impacts the sailing characteristics of the boat. Saving weight aloft will be the primary purpose of going with the synthetic rig. This blog will be devoted to the re-rigging of Shanti with this new technology.

Note: If you would like to leave a comment, have a question or imput, just click on “Comment” below each post.

Gary