Main Shrouds are essential

Posted By: Greg CM26 Seattle CLM005771173
Date: 7/6/08 8:47p.m.

Report: outside forum guidelines

In Response To: mast raising hardware issue (Mike Pope)

Mike, sorry to hear about your dismasting! If I read this correctly, you are describing what happened with your Starwind, not with a Clipper, right? Here's the most important issue regarding lateral stability when raising a Clipper mast (I should qualify: this applies to my own CM26: I don't know for a fact that it applies to other Clippers, but I'd be surprised if it does not): if you put your eyeball at the middle chainplate where the spreaders attach and look across to the same thing on the other side, you will see that the mast pin is pretty close to right on that same line. The two shroud attach points are an inch or two lower, closer to the waterline, and that is also significant. The concept is that if you have your Clipper main shrouds attached to their chainplates when you raise the mast, they should keep the mast pretty close to the boat's centerline, regardless of the elevation angle of the mast (including fully down). I believe the whole arrangement was designed so that when the 2 main shrouds are properly adjusted for sailing, you should be able to just leave them alone whether the mast is up or down. That's what I do: I don't loosen or tighten the main shrouds or the aft pair: they're already set to go when the mast reaches full erection. If you experience a mast that has been erect for more than four hours,... That two-inch or so difference I mentioned earlier comes to effect when the mast is almost all the way up. Two things are happenening at that point: the effort needed to get it vertical is diminishing rapidly, and the slight amount of slack in the shrouds is also diminishing rapidly. They go nice and tight just when the mast gets all the way up. I guess you are proposing a solution that would use 4' lines to simulate what the Clipper main shrouds do. You correctly noticed that having them on the same plane with the mast hinge is important. I would suggest that you should try to set their attach points at the same elevation as the mast hinge as well, so that their tension does not change as the mast angle varies (unless you are prepared to mess with their tension during the process---not recommended!) As you wonder whether this will be sucessful, I would suggest thinking about it this way: ask yourself "are these 4' lines adequate to keep that mast on the boat centerline---without help from other shrouds---when the mast is fully erect? Can I rock the boat a little and they will still hold the mast steady?" If the answer is not yes, then refine your approach until it is. This is do-able. Good luck! Greg P.S. I'll be 61 next month. Let's hear it for Old Salts and Geezerhood!