INVESTIGATOR 563

Morning All, Well Ive had a number of successful sails with good ole Molly now, and i must say enjoying being back on the water albet in a much smaller vessel than the last Home that i had many years ago. ( 25000 ton tanker lol).
Put a bimini on today and will post photos in the morning with details of where i got it from. Question.... how much tension should you have on the side wires on the mast as i have noticed that they do go fairly slack on the lee side when sailing.
Nort sure ifs a good thing as the sharpie that i raced Many ......years ago we always had them reasonabley tight so the mast didnt sway around heaps.
Going to go down to the peel inlet for a couple of nights with the lad and hope to have a great time there.( bit of the old male F/S bonding lol.)

I don't have precise answers and can only share my observations of my boat. I'll start with the forestay-backstay tension and then talk about the side-stays and diamond stay.

My boat, Pip, has a backstay tensioner which is used to tension the rig once the mast is up. I use full tension when sailing and back it off when stopped for the night. I would describe my fore and aft rig tension as very firm. I say this because the luff on my headsail stays straight when sailing to windward in a good blow. There is a screw adjustment on the furling mechanism at the bow, but the thread is quite fine and not touched once the mast is up.

With respect to the side-stays, I have two heavy duty gauge wire leading down from just below the top of the mast to the deck. They do not pass through the spreaders. Without any sail bent on I would describe these as firmly tensioned. I am certainly happy to grab on to them as handholds and note no particular 'give' when I do so (this is when the backstay is fully tensioned).

The diamond stay (the part running through the spreaders) has a lot to do with keeping the mast straight in a side to side sense. This part of my rig is very firm.

I have never seen Pip's mast, 'sway around heaps.' On Pip, in light sailing conditions there is no noticeable slackening of the leeward stay however as conditions pick up to where reefing is being considered then yes, the leeward stay is sloppy. Having said that the forestay, backstay and windward side-stay are each very firm and the mast is straight in all respects. I suspect the diamond stay has a lot to do with this.

Flexing at the mast foot might be a concern but I have never noticed it on my boat. If this was the case for you then your rig would go slack from time to time. If this is not the case then it sounds to me like your rig is too slack.

Hope this helps.