[Public-list] rig tuning

[J Bergquist]

Folks,

I have couple of questions about setting up my rig. I just put it back up
last night after being down for a long time. It is COMPLETELY out of
adjustment. In particular, I have no idea what the rake setting should be.

What is the procedure that you follow for getting your rig set up? I
replaced all of the lower turnbuckles and the backstay turnbuckle, so I
basically need to set it up from scratch. The main things I need are
guidance on getting the rake right and getting a good tension regime. My
strategy in the absence of other advice would be the following:

1. Get the rig straight in the boat by using the main halyard to make sure
there are equal lengths from the masthead to both rails.

2. Sight up the mast to make sure it's in column. If not, use lowers to pull
the middle one way or the other.

3. After doing 2, start over at 1 and repeat until the rig is both straight
in the boat AND in column.

4. Check the rake using main halyard to corner of transom. I do not know
what this dimension should be and I would really appreciate some guidance
from those of you who are experienced. Adjust rake as necessary to get the
mast in the right place fore and aft, rake-wise. I am expecting that the
rake should be pretty close to straight up and down, or maybe even kicked
forward a little bit.

5. Once rake is set, adjust the lowers fore and aft to get neutral bend, or
perhaps just a little bit of forward bend. Measure bend using main halyard
stretched very tight to the gooseneck. Distance from main halyard to mast
track at spreaders is the bend measurement. I am thinking not more than 2"
at the very most.

6. Once all of the settings are more or less correct geometrically speaking,
adjust tension to be in the ballpark. If somebody could give me tension
numbers that would be very helpful. There is a listing at:

http://www.alberg30.org/maintenance/SparsSailsRigging/tensions.html

But there is a tremendous amount of variability in those numbers. I have had
one suggestion to use the #'s from US 17 which are 890# on the backstay,
890# on the uppers and 640# on the forward lowers.

7. All done? Rinse and repeat as necessary to make sure everything is still
straight in the boat, in column, rake is correct, and properly bent with the
desired tension.

Thoughts? I have done this on lots of other kinds of boats, but never on my
Alberg.

Kind regards,

J Bergquist