Lovely! Thanks for the well illustrated tips-n-tricks item. I use a bungee-ball "rubber band" to secure the turnbuckles/shrouds together close to the chainplate anyhow for travel. If I just put them on this way to start with, they can stay there between landing and launching and be one less thing to do when raising. FWIW my M17 came to me set up for raising from the bow, not the stern. So far so good. The mast slides out over the tow vehicle, not out into any traffic that may be coming through the boat trailer rigging/parking area. The shrouds are snug when mast is raised, but not super tight. I didn't have any problem with getting over the "hump" of the front corner of the mast. I just slack the backstay turnbuckle a bit before raising so it's under less tension when hooking to the split stays, then snug it up again. That ring where the masthead piece of backstay meets the split backstay is a lot easier to work with for attaching/detaching than the forestay attachment point. The final ease would be putting a quick release lever on the forestay. No need to try and make the stay connection under tension or remember how many turns to slack & tighten a turnbuckle. Just hook it on and then snug it to pre-set tension with the lever-lock. Used to sail a club Potter 19 both before and after one of these was added. Boy did it make it so much easier. cheers, John S. On 03/29/2016 04:52 PM, David Rifkind wrote:
When the mast tilts back on its heel, the top goes up, but not by very much. In fact it’s the cosine error of a very small angle and comes out to be maybe .015”. The shrouds look to be almost exactly in line with the mast so they’re really not going over center. I don’t think this adds up to anything.
My T bolts can’t be bending when the mast is up or nearly up, because they bend in the same plane as the chainplate tab, which is the direction the shackle pivots. In fact the shackle and T bolt form a U-joint. The only way it can bend is when it’s out of plane with both pivots.
This actually happens when the base of the shroud is trying to go from horizontal to vertical. Look:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/ard2whxn1u62ksk/P3290005-Edit-2.jpg?dl=0
The shackle (on the upper only) drops to the outside, the turnbuckle swings back, and trying to pull the shroud upright pulls sideways on the T bolt until the shackle pops upright.
However, if the shackle is upright to start with:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/tvrfyvkihd3t310/P3290004-Edit.jpg?dl=0
Which leads me to this One Weird Trick:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/vedty5ctl7gb63a/P3290001.jpg?dl=0
Yeah. A rubber band.
-- John Schinnerer - M.A., Whole Systems Design -------------------------------------------- - Eco-Living - Whole Systems Design Services People - Place - Learning - Integration john@eco-living.net - 510.982.1334 http://eco-living.net http://sociocracyconsulting.com