shroud tension

[shadybacon]

Can anyone give me a rule of thumb for the correct shroud tension on a ds1? I will be taking "Sea Biscuit" out for the first time this weekend.
Thanks
Jon

[seandwyer]

Hey - this is something I am struggling with right now myself. It seems to depend on a lot of things and depending on who you talk to you get different answers. On Saturday I adjusted my mast according to the guidelines here:

http://www.northsailsod.com/class/daysa ... uning.html

Once I had the mast head distance from the aft edge of the transom where I wanted it, I locked it in using the tension from the forestay and shrouds. The mast is holding there and the tension on the wires is firm but something just less of allowing you to play a bass note when plucked. I think the best way to put it is firm, but not tight. You can buy a tension meter - or whatever it is called from a sailing store - but when I looked at them they were close to 100.00 and definitely not worth their cost. The thing looked like a fish scale you carry in your tackle box - so their must be a better answer - and one that costs less. In older books (DS1 era) there are no numbers with regard to tension - only the idea of firm, but not tight. I've also seen many times that you need to go sailing and see what the shrouds do when windward and leeward. They should be tight and not have any slack until a decent amount of wind is coming from the opposite side. I'll check out how this worked in terms of performance this weekend. One word of caution in terms of the above article: I'm willing to bet that the information is based on new 1/8" shrouds. If you still have the older, original 3/32" like me, you may want to reconsider following the high tension used by the national champions et al. Hope this helps!

[shadybacon]

Thanks, that does help.
I looked at the Daysailer tuning guide; thats more advanced than I need right now. In fact, my mast is slightly bent to port anyway (hopefully, she will still sail alright, but I don't expect to win any regattas.)

[Imgaryo1]

Hello. I noticed seandwyer is from Ohio. Did you know the Daysailer National Regatta Championship is being hosted in Ohio in 2010? That is a great opportunity to talk with the best sailors in the class, take pictures of how all the different boats are rigged and in general, get answers to any questions you may have. Most people will help you tune your rig, add the go fast stuff and yes, tell you all about rig tension. You will find that rig tension is critical to making the boat sail well in addition to preventing you from being dismasted. I highly recommend the use of a Loos guage to measure rig tension. Its a lot cheaper than new shrouds, stays, masts or repairing the cuddy.

To participate, you need to be a member of the Daysailer Association which is a bargain.