Victoria Shadow Association Members' Forum

Murray_Fraser

Member

From: Weymouth

Registered: 2016-11-22

Posts: 87

V800 Cutter Rigging Tension

I would welcome some advice on the tension needed on my cutter.  A long overdue check with a borrowed Loos guage has produced some odd results.  Note - I had not fully tightened the backstay after relaunch and my intention was to tighten this to 15/20%.  Mast appears straight, backstay had previously seemed overly tight as significant mast bend aft.

Shrouds from Bow to Stern        % of Breaking Strength    Adjustment to
BACKSTAY                     5mm                  8.9%                      15/20%
Stb Fwd Lowers          5mm                23.0%                      18.7%
Stb Cap Shroud          5mm                18.7%                         -
Stb Aft Lowers            5mm                18.7%                         -
Stb Inter/Staysail       6mm                10.5%                       18.7%
Port Fwd Lowers         5mm                18.7%                         -
Port Cap Shroud         5mm                18.7%                         -
Port Aft Lowers           5mm                15.7%                       18.7%
Port Inter/Staysail       6mm                17.4%                       18.7%

Have scoured Web it would seem that Fwd/Aft and Cap should be around 10% and Inter 12/15%.  However advice on cutters is sorely lacking.  Reducing the tension by these significant amounts seems a bit risky as the golden rule is 'keep em tight rather than loose'!  So perhaps I should just adjust each side to make them equal subject to mast keeping straight?  The exception would be the Intermediates as I think they need to be at least as high if not higher tension as the lowers especially as I fly a cruising chute.

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