"Ellen MacArthur" wrote in message
reenews.net...

"Walt" wrote
BTW, dinghy sailors know how to tune rig tension ourselves. We don't
need a $110/hr consultant to do it for us.

How do you do it? Do you sail on one tack with about a 20knot wind
and
check the leeward shrouds and tighten the turnbuckles until there's no
slack.
And, then come about and sail on the other tack and do the other side?
That's
the best way to do it if you don't have some special too. That's what I
was
told at least. Oh the forestay you have to tighten so it stays pretty
straight
when sailing with your jib. That automatically tightens up the back stay.
But when you have only three stays like my Tangerine it gets more
complicated.
Three's harder to get right than four.

Cheers,
Ellen

No, it is not harder. Tighten all three up to a decent tension so that the
mast is upright and there is no slackness that can lead to fatigue failure
when not in use. Then, when you hoist your jib, tension up the jib really
hard so that the forestay does go a bit slack and the luff wire of the jib
has all the tension. The remaining two shrouds will then be correctly
tensioned.