Quick question on Shrouds

[Fintan Murphy]

Hi all,

I have the chainplates in place and was wondering about the shrouds. I think that the plans say, although they are not too clear, that they ran a wire from one side, through the eye on the mast, and down to the other side. They then put a clamp at the eye on the mast.

So what I want to know is, is it better to have a single wire going from the front port chainplate, through the eye, to the front starbord chainplate, with a clamp at the eye. The same them being done for the aft chainplates.

Or would it be bettter to have the wire going from the front port chainplate to the mast, and back to the aft port chainplate, with a clamp at the mast eye. The other wire would obviously go from the starbord front chainplate to the starbord aft chainplate.

My gut tells me that the first is more resilient,as if one goes, the other is holding both sides of the mast, but then, with the clamp at the eye, it shouldn't matter.

Or does it not make a dam bit of difference and I'm obsessing over minutae. :roll:

[Dave R1]

Fintan, I think the intent was to have the same piece of wire form both the fore and aft shroud on the same side. The load on the eye at the top would be doubled due to this arrangement however the loads in general are not that high compared to the capability of the wire itself so you are unlikely to have any trouble.

I went with soft eyes aloft. Each shroud and the forestay have their own eye. The eyes go over the mast and hang on the eye bolt crane that holds the double block for the peak halyard. I put them up in the traditional manner: forestay, fore port shroud, fore stbd shroud, aft port, aft stbd.

G'luck

[MikeStevenson]

To some degree you may be obssesing-over-the-m, but it's a valid question. Mostly we're trying to keep things simple and to minimise stuff going on at the mast head. You need a cable clamp to keep the continuous wire from slipping as the mast shifts (thereby obviating the support a fair amount.)

It's not too big a deal; either way will work. The two -wire method is probably a little stronger but will be more work.

Mike

[Fintan Murphy]

Thanks lads,

I've run the shrouds using one wire each side (clamped at the mast eye) and it looks Ok. when I actually tried it I found that it would not work the other way anyway as they would have bent around the mast.

Thanks again,

Today I am meeting up with Steve Downs who is over to Ireland on a tour with his wife and inlaws.

[Dave R1]

Glad you got it rigged Fintan. Say hello to Steve.