[Rhodes22-list] Setting Shroud Tension

[Chris Geankoplis]

David,
        A word of caution,  when the lee shrouds go "slack" depending on the
paticular conditions the motion of the boat will unscrew the lee shrouds
without a cotter pin or ring.  Talk about getting unscrwed and then screwed.

On the compression problem.  On a boat without hatches the cabin roof is
bullet proof.  A point in case.  A long time ago with my 1st Rhodes a nasty
tornado picked up the boat on the Chesapeake and flipped it.  Since it was
in about ten feet of water the mast acted like a polevault and the entire
weight of the boat, crew and inverted cheese fondue pot was balanced on the
mast step as the mast slowly sank into the very soft bottom off Poplar
island.  After cleaning off the jellyfish and cheese, somewhat fearfully, I
checked the area around the compression post.  There ws no sign of
distortion or damage.  Now if a solid cabintop can take that punishment,
even with a hatch or two, you still should have a mighty strong support
stystem.  Good luck on the problem, perhaps it is only cosmetic.

Chris G
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "David Culp" <dculp at hsbtx.us>
To: <rhodes22-list at rhodes22.org>
Sent: Sunday, June 25, 2006 4:22 PM
Subject: [Rhodes22-list] Setting Shroud Tension


I appreciated all the suggestions on setting the shroud tension and so went
and re-did mine today.  Funny things happen when you follow directions.  I
loosened up and then retightened all the shrouds hand-tight only, constantly
checking that the mast was straight and that the turnbuckles had taken up
approximately the same distance on the bolts.  Then I took the dreaded gauge
and checked them all.  I was within 10 lbs on all of them and the average
was 150 lbs based on the index number on my gauge which is about a year old.

Next, out to sail the boat in about 8-10 kts of wind.  The lees all go loose
close-hauled, but I don't see where there is any shock loading going on.
The boat sailed fine.  I want to check these settings in a heavier wind just
to make sure then I will put the pins in and not worry about it anymore.  I
think on this boat it appears that the Loos gauge is just a tool to confirm
that the shrouds have about the same tension-whatever that turns out to be.
Once you do it a few times, you probably wouldn't even go to the trouble
again.

I also took the opportunity to look at the cabin compression thing again.
The crack in the cabin liner is about 2 inches long and running straight
back from the corner of the port hatch.  It appears to me now that if you
had serious compression that the hatch frames would be moved out of their
openings and that the head folding door would not operate properly as there
is very little clearance.  It's plenty on this boat and even all the way
across.  Other then the crack, everything else is normal.  My initial fears
may have been premature on this as well.

Thanks to all-
David Culp


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