why are upper shrouds so tight?

[upgradingdave]

I've loosened the turnbuckles of my upper shrouds as much as possible, but they're still really tight?

I used a halyard to measure side to side and the mast seems centered. When I look up the mast, it seems straight. The shrouds appear to be running correctly (no weird kinks or turns or anything blatantly obviously wrong).

This is the second season I've had the boat. Last season, I didn't seem to have this problem. So, I'm afraid that I have to lower the mast and inspect where the upper shrouds attach to the top of the mast in order to figure this out.

But before I do so, has anyone else ran into this problem before?

Here's a photo of the Loose Gauge I'm using, it's showing > 40

I've loosened both upper shroud turnbuckles as far as I can, here's a photo:

[BarryE]

Is your forestay too short? Most of us use an extra toggle to meet max length, did you forget the toggle? this lets the mast rake back a bit and would loosen your shrouds accordingly.

[upgradingdave]

Thanks for the tip, that definitely could be the problem, I was suspicious of the forestay. I'll check tomorrow if there's a toggle.

[upgradingdave]

Looks like I do have the toggle.

So, now I'm stumped again. Seems like I'm missing an inch of slack somewhere ... very strange.

[FEVER]

Looking closely at the photo, I wonder if you are mistaking the lower clevis on your roller reefing setup for an
"extra toggle" allowed by the class rules to lengthen the fore stay?
Is there any way of knowing if the reefer is mounted on the original fore stay or a different one that may have
come with the reefer?

[BarryE]

Since you're using roller furler you're sort of outside the one-design box already. I'd add another toggle and see what happens.

[Stef]

I wouldn't be so quick the take mast down. If it was one of the shrouds not seated properly, I doubt it would be both sides at the same time, because your mast is straight. Put my money on the forestay somewhere. Was does the former owner say?

That's a lot on tension!

[LarryE]

I'm having another issue after adding roller furling. Boat will not point.
Was careful to try to set up length, when I installed the R/f.
Since we don't do OD anymore,just beer can, thinking of lengthening the forstay.

[BarryE]

When I added roller furling I added another whole toggle and moved the jib lead cars way back. That seemed to help pointing. Sail I've got is a dacron 135; works great.

[LarryE]

I also have a Dacron 135, from Doyle/Boston. Beautiful sail and fast.
I have at least 1in. on my turnbuckle to move. Also have a new turnbuckle that I need to install.
Will add a toggle, next winter or next hurricane, whichever comes first.

[upgradingdave]

Just an update. Last year when I originally posted this, the shrouds were really tight. This year, while raising the mast for the season, we measured the forestay length and it's 31 ft 6.5 inches (that length includes a toggle on top and a toggle on the bottom). In addition, we realized that there were 2 different sized sets of turnbuckles in the back of parts left from the previous owner.

So, this year we're using the slightly longer turnbuckles on the side stays and that made all the difference. The side stay tension is much better this year.

Next year, I'm going to see if I do even better by finding slightly longer toggles to hopefully get the forestay to exactly 31 ft 8 inches.