Mast
14.
4
Grand Soleil 43'
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Tuning the shrouds…
Tuning the shrouds
On the lateral plane, the mast should be as straight as possible under
load. You can check this by looking at the mainsail track from the
bottom up.
At the time of delivery, the yacht’s rig is properly tuned.
After a few weeks of use, though, the rigging will be subject to
“creep”, or slight stretching.
It is important to check periodically for “creep” and tighten the
shrouds accordingly, acting on the relative turnbuckles.
These very small adjustments should be always performed on
leeward shrouds.
• Whenever, for any reason, a complete check and tuning of the
rig for safety or performance should become necessary, we
strongly recommend you to contact the Cantiere del Pardo or
specialized technicians.
Recommendations for the tuning of the standing rigging.
The complete tuning of the rig should be performed only by
experienced personnel.
• The following checklist should be used whenever a complete
tuning is necessary.
- With the yacht at the dock, with no sails hoisted, slacken the
runners (Opt) and babystay (Opt.), and make sure that the
forestay and backstay are barely in tension.
- Take all slack out of the shrouds by evenly tightening all
turnbuckles
- The mainsail track should, at this point, be very straight.
- Tension the vertical shrouds (V) evenly by taking two or three
complete turns of the turnbuckles. The mainsail track should be
kept straight.
- Tension the diagonal shrouds maintaining the straightness of
the mast.
- Load lightly the mast by sailing in close hauled on a medium
light breeze and flat sea in a protected area to verify the lateral
mast alignment with medium-light tension on the stays.
- Tension all diagonals so that the mast is straight on the lateral
plane. The tensioning of the shrouds can be accomplished
safely only on the leeward shrouds: if you want to correct the
mast’s lateral bend while sailing for example on starboard tack,
