[Rhodes22-list] RE: Setting Shroud Tension-Loos Instructions

[David Culp]

Hey Chris:

Yeah, I'm going to check the shrouds one more time in a little heavier blow
and then stick the pins in so I don't get any nasty surprises.  With the
Rhodes you would have to lose several before the mast would come down unlike
my last boat... Lose one and you are done.

Compression-I think it might be cosmetic.  I'm the third or fourth owner and
somebody along the way may have cranked it down too much or who knows?
Looks like it flexed back and I see no ill effects.  I'll keep my eye on it.

Somebody asked about the Loos gauge...  When you measure the tension there
is an index number which is read off the gauge.  This number is applied to a
table for the particular size of shroud wire that you have and you are given
the number of lbs of tension based on the size of wire.

The instructions for the gauge do not differentiate between cabin-stepped or
keel-stepped.  They talk about using a percentage of the breaking tension of
the shroud wire.  For side shrouds, Loos generally recommends 10-12 % of the
breaking tension which they say for 1/8 wire is 2100 lbs. or 210 to 250 lbs.
The forestay tension is recommended to be higher-in the 350-400 lbs range.
Loos recommends against completely loose lee shrouds. 

I think the main thing is to avoid shock loading where the mast is allowed
to gain some inertia before it snaps taught in a tack.  With nine shrouds,
the Rhodes has all kinds of support and shock absorption capability.  When I
tack, I don't see anything amiss even with loose lees.  A boat with fewer
shrouds might require higher initial tension to avoid shock loading.
Hand-tight would not have worked on my last boat with only 3 shrouds and so
I kept it about 250 and the everything was "in tune" so to speak.

David





>Date: Sun, 25 Jun 2006 17:37:14 -0700
>From: "Chris Geankoplis" <napoli68 at charter.net>
>Subject: Re: [Rhodes22-list] Setting Shroud Tension
>To: "The Rhodes 22 mail list" <rhodes22-list at rhodes22.org>
>Message-ID: <008701c698b8$abcd4a00$6601a8c0 at dadsoldcomputer>
>Content-Type: text/plain;       charset="iso-8859-1"

>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