MacGregorSailors.com

While we were doing our abbreviated shakedown cruise on Labor Day, I noticed that the standing rigging on my new (to me) boat appears to be way too loose. I have looked in the manual and also referred to this forum and other sites trying to get a good idea of what I should do with this rigging setup. It looks like the general consensus is that I should try to keep my mast rake at about 2 degrees and that I should induce a "small bend" by tightening the backstay.

Also, anyone have any good pointers for making these adjustments with the factory rigging and on how to avoid stupid mistakes? I'll admit that when I had my Catalina 27 spreaders replaced, I just had the dockyard do a full tune on my rigging, so this is a completely new area for me. Also, how long should I set aside for this? Is an afternoon safe or am I looking at several days as an amateur? I am going to pick up a tension gauge and one of those modified vice-grip tool thingies soon, are there any other tools I should go ahead and pick up while I'm at it?

Blue Water Yachts has a good article on Mac tuning here: Rig Tuning. They are good people, as well as supporter of this website. They will be happy to answer any questions that arise and have a very large supply of factory Mac parts.

~Rich

Do not get the vice grip plier thingie. Absolutely useless.

I have Bills - and love it....are you doing something wrong??

See: http://macgregorsailors.com/phpBB/viewt ... f=7&t=7926 "Buy the Loose gauge"

Tunning will make a big difference even it looks like a small forestay adjusment.

Victor

I just re-tuned my rig for the Jacksonville ocean trip and it made a world of difference. I highly suggest the vise grip tool, it worked like a champ and enabled my to acheive similar numbers to Victor with my uppers and lowers. The Loos guage is a great tool and the pliers are key to acheiveing the higher tensions.

John

FYI: You will need a 3" tang to extend the backstay.

The pliers would have saved alot of time. We just keep tensioning and untension the forestay.

Okay, I think I've got a decent idea of how I will go about most of my tuning, but still have a question regarding my CDI furler. Is it normal for the forestay (well, cable anyway) running through the center of the furler to be loose? On my old C27 my roller furling setup was quite taut, but now that I think about it, I am not entirely certain whether the cable itself was tighter or whether the furling shaft was just stiffer making it seem tight.

The reason I ask is that I don't recall seeing any evidence of a tension adjuster on either end of the furler, nor any room for one to go, so I am not sure how I would go about making any adjustments without relocating my deck mounting location.

Any input would be appreciated as I will be picking up my Loos gauge on Monday and starting my tune on Monday. Anything else to look out for, since I also want to do a detailed check of the mast, wiring, etc for corrosion or damage while I'm at it.

Thanks in advance!

There should be a turnbuckle inside the furler drum. You will have to slide the drum up to adjust it.

~Rich

Okay, that makes sense. I just remove the pin that secures the luff pole to the drum and it should slide up and give me access? Thanks so much for the quick reply.

I'm not sure which modle CDI furler you have, but manuals for the CDI line may be downloaded here:

http://www.sailcdi.com/ffmain.htm

~Rich

jcasale wrote:I just re-tuned my rig for the Jacksonville ocean trip and it made a world of difference. I highly suggest the vise grip tool, it worked like a champ and enabled my to acheive similar numbers to Victor with my uppers and lowers. The Loos guage is a great tool and the pliers are key to acheiveing the higher tensions.

John

Because I am in full-on picture mode following our Jax Mac Get-Together I thought I would post a picture showing the results of John's tuning of his . I could really see the rake/bend and how taught the forestay is.



Jim

Your forestay on the CDI furler (or without, for that matter) should NOT be loose at all...this is dangerous.

This forestay is the only thing holding up your mast - if it is loose and shock loads, eventually something will fail.

Inspection (by lifting the gray plastic extrusion) should be done every season - make sure the turnbuckle isnt moving (mark it with Sharpie)

I put two nuts on the end of the internals screws so that if the turnbuckle body rips out of the threads, I still have a chance to hold the mast up.

The above photo is what my mast looked like a couple months ago when I posted questions about whether my rigging was too tight. Now I will have to recheck, I don't remember if I backed it off I hope not or I will have to go though the whole process again. I guess since it's been a couple months I should re-check anyway. Rob

That's my boat in the photo and I feel as though I over raked the mast for this trip. I am still in the process of adjusting my rigging. Any input based on the above photo is appreciated.

John