Our is kept on a swing mooring for the season (5 mths) and rigging failures (broken lower shroud, broken strands on fore stay, goose neck pulled out of boom, bent spreaders, spreaders attachment pivot bolt worn half way through and more) have been constant, ever time I go down to her I am continually adjusting shroud tension to keep it with in specifications. I am presently upgrading the whole rigging and have solved most of the problems (thanks to this forum). Which brings me to my question has anybody seen or worked on the structure behind the gunnel shroud attachment points and the bow fore stay attachment point. Do they have reinforcement plates behind them and how thick is the structure in this area I have this lingering doubt that I should up grade these attachment points
Haven't worked on these areas but my dealer told me that these areas have thick fiberglass and should provide ample strength. The problem with your shrouds and forestay seem really unusual. I keep my boat rigged, though on a trailer, however, Oyester Point Marina is an absolute wind funnell. 25-35 knts is not uncommon in the spring and summer time. It is one of the windiest spots on San Francisco Bay. I never had any rigging failures and only time I adjust is to fine tune/tweak but never because the rigging came out of tune from the wind/elements. Any idea why this is happening to you? Is vandalism a possibility?
Thanks for your input. Winds at our mooring can get up to 50kts and 2m waves, we leave the boat fully rigged (main sail on, stowed and covered, genny on, stowed and covered) attached to the mast there is TV aerial, 6ft radio aerial and a Windex; it also has an hydraulic boom lift (no topping lift). This all adds stress as well as mast whip in rough conditions. It all seems to take its toll on the rigging. I am also upgrading all the shrouds but I am using 3/16ths wire with machine swaged fittings and closed body turn barrels - this should allow finer and easier adjustments. I am not convinced about the capabilities of the compression ferrules for my application
Thanks for your feedback, Jack. It's valuable history for other owners.
Few owners seem to recognize the punishment imposed on an open mooring. At least a half-dozen dismastings have been reported here, no doubt because the owners have not been as diligent in maintaining the rig tune, as you describe.
I agree with your reported upgrades, though I'm not at all familiar with the 26M. However, it's clear that the constant shock loading on an open mooring is extreme. Any open mooring imposes constant work for the rig, 24x7x365 ... a much worse punishment than full-time sailing, since the shock loads while sailing are much less frequent. Failures shouldn't be any surprise.
In your situation, I'd think it's not urgent to back up the chainplates, but it surely couldn't hurt. Unfortunately, it means adding stainless plates to the exterior of the hull.
If nothing else, please consider adding a mooring snubber to your mooring line. I'd also experiment with mooring to a point one meter aft along either fore-quarter (where the pulpit's aft stanchion meets the deck) just to see if it helps subdue the "hunting" of the hull in the wind. Helping the hull to avoid tacking in the wind might reduce the constancy of shock-loading. Of course, before using it as a permanent solution, this would demand a heavy-duty cleat at that point.
What do you use to cover the genny? We get some pretty nasty winds on our mountain lake. I have a headsail cover that flaps pretty bad unless I spiral the halyard around it to keep it tight. If I don't, it flaps and causes a bad oscillation in the rigging. I also tighten the main sheet so the topping lift tightens the forestay and tighten the jib sheets for the same reason. On top of all that I have running backstays that I tighten.
We do not have a cover over the genny per say there is a uv cover sewn onto the foot and the leach. I then tie a strap around the attach point of the sheets so it doesn't unfurl on the mooring.
We don't have a back stay
We have added more weight to the boat but this is evenly distributed all round not specifically to the bow
Removing the boom and main sail could become an option for next season if I can't solve it with my rigging up grades. Other yachts moored around us (approx 100 all of various sizes) range from leaving their boats full rigged to bare mast only there doesn't seem to be any consistency
A mooring ball and snubber line is the upgrade for our mooring this coming season
Jack - I have found that the bow cuts(?) through the waves better with more weight in the bow than with a light bow. Not as much bounce bow to stern. It mught help some of the bounce.
The jib is on the roller furler, Is the jib halyard not being used? If not then you could tie it to the bow pulpit with a dock shock cord to absorb some of the shock. The same thing could be done with the running back stays.
A good yoke might help the boat "sailing" at the mooring as much. Just a guess.
The reason for me wanting to know is that I am planing a 3 to 5 year cruise and want to find out how to prevent most of these problems. Of course I could always replace the standing rigging with thicker.
I wonder if an anchoring sail or small drogue off the stern would reduce some of the swing and shock load? Anyone have experience using either and if so with what results?
would it help to put the boom and mainsail below? or wouldnt that remove enough windage and weight slamming around? Then use your jib halyard forward to help the roller furler support the mast and the main halyard to the stern to help the rear stay. and leave your baby stays in place to help support the mast.
I keep my boat (26x) on a mooring 12 months of the year. I have never experienced problems with the rigging as you described. The conditions generally do not exceed 25 kts of wind. All the 200 boats around me keep their main sails and jibs up.
I don't think the mast and rigging has that much windage. The problem with the mac is the lack of an underwater profile, the windage on the hull, and its light weight.
I do have a problem in that the Mac bounces around alot on its mooring compared to just about every other boat. I have experimented with keeping the centerboard down but then that seems to overly stress the centerboard and last year the bolt attaching the centerboard wire to the centerboard failed on me.
I have thought of using a sentinel on the mooring line. This would be a mushroom anchor that hangs on the mooring line. During hurricane season many local sailors use it since it weighs down the line so that the force on the anchor is more horizontal. In my case I think that as the boat swings back & forth the sentinel would be dragged on the bottom -- hopefully reducing the stress as the boat swings.
is kept on a swing mooring for the season (5 mths) and rigging failures (broken lower shroud, broken strands on fore stay, goose neck pulled out of boom, bent spreaders, spreaders attachment pivot bolt worn half way through and more) have been constant, ever time I go down to her I am continually adjusting shroud tension to keep it with in specifications. I am presently upgrading the whole rigging and have solved most of the problems (thanks to this forum). Which brings me to my question has anybody seen or worked on the structure behind the gunnel shroud attachment points and the bow fore stay attachment point. Do they have reinforcement plates behind them and how thick is the structure in this area I have this lingering doubt that I should up grade these attachment points
