Loos Guage

[trek47]

Hello ! I wanted to know what the settings should be in tightening the shrouds on a CD Typhoon. Does anyone have those values? Also how can one tell if the base of the mast is showing any concave shape? I just want to make sure my boat does not show those signs. THnx-Mich

[Tom McD]

According to the manufacturer, for 1/8 inch 1x19 stainless wire, the setting for the forestay should be 320 lbs and 240 for the shrouds. While others may have differing opinions these numbers are a good start.
Over tensioning is one of the causes for the cabin top of a Typhoon to sag. Not knowing if all Typhoon were created equal I can only tell you what I gleaned from the archives and my own 1975 Typhoon. I raised mine to a height of 38 1/2 inches from the cabin floor to the interior of the mast support. Again this is a good place to start.

Tom McD
Typhoon # 1053

[Bruce Dart]

Brion Toss has a good video on tuning the rig. It's available thru his web-site: briontoss.com

[dwdisbennett]

The best method is percentage of stretch.. Take a 2 meter folding ruler (carpenters ruler) tape it to the shroud with the sliding metal end at the turnbuckle. Tighten the rig until the til of the ruler is 2mm away from the turnbuckle (1% of stretch). THis is far more accurate than the Loos meter

Dave

[Parfait's Provider]

While I agree that the carpenter's rule is an easy method to measure the stretch introduced into a wire from the untensioned state, I don't see how you can ever be certain that when the whole rig is tuned you haven't disrupted the balance unless you tape rules on every stay and shroud from the start and check them all as you complete the tensioning of the rig.

Further, if you ever want to check the tension after the intiial tuning, you will have to keep the rules in place and securely fastened to the shroud or stay. Maybe this is a good application for the more sophisticated tool? Repeatability may be more important than absolute accuracy once the rig is initially tuned.

[John Vigor]

I have tried Loos gauges. I have nearly gone blind trying to measure the stretch of shrouds in milliwotsits. Does anyone realize how small 1 mm is?

In the end, I discovered, the best way to tune a rig is to use the Twang Factor. Just pluck the shrouds and listen.

Tune the lower shrouds to Middle C, and the uppers to B-flat minor. As for the stays, you need only tension one because tightening the forestay automatically tighens the backstay. Note, however, that the backstay will always be under less tension than the forestay, no matter what you do, because of the differing angles they make at the masthead.

So go right ahead, pluck your forestay until it vibrates a nice E-sharp. The backstay will sound a D-flat, which is a bit disconcerting. Try never to pluck them together.

The actual notes to tune by depend on the size of your boat and rig, of course, but in case you run into this problem, note that F-sharp and G-flat are not the same note. F-sharp is actually tuned a shade higher than G-flat and will produce less sag in the forestay in Force 6 and above.

Incidentally, the real Cape Dory authority on Twang Tuning is master cellist Carter Brey, and if you ask him nicely he will explain the benefits of Typhoon arpeggios and the Circle of Fifths as it relates to the CD25, which of course, is five times one Circle of Fifths.

John Vigor
CD27 "Sangoma"
Bellingham, WA

[Guest]

Are your books funny too? If so, I may have to get them off my Wish List and into my hands.

Thanks for that!

[Carter Brey]

I have tried Loos gauges. I have nearly gone blind trying to measure the stretch of shrouds in milliwotsits. Does anyone realize how small 1 mm is?

In the end, I discovered, the best way to tune a rig is to use the Twang Factor. Just pluck the shrouds and listen.

Tune the lower shrouds to Middle C, and the uppers to B-flat minor. As for the stays, you need only tension one because tightening the forestay automatically tighens the backstay. Note, however, that the backstay will always be under less tension than the forestay, no matter what you do, because of the differing angles they make at the masthead.

So go right ahead, pluck your forestay until it vibrates a nice E-sharp. The backstay will sound a D-flat, which is a bit disconcerting. Try never to pluck them together.

The actual notes to tune by depend on the size of your boat and rig, of course, but in case you run into this problem, note that F-sharp and G-flat are not the same note. F-sharp is actually tuned a shade higher than G-flat and will produce less sag in the forestay in Force 6 and above.

Incidentally, the real Cape Dory authority on Twang Tuning is master cellist Carter Brey, and if you ask him nicely he will explain the benefits of Typhoon arpeggios and the Circle of Fifths as it relates to the CD25, which of course, is five times one Circle of Fifths.

John Vigor
CD27 "Sangoma"
Bellingham, WA

Yup. That's how we do it over here, and I've never seen a more cogent explanation.

It's important to note that the E-sharp of the forestay is, enharmonically speaking, the same as F natural. This and the D-flat of the backstay taken together actually form the third and fifth degrees of the B-flat minor triad which, as John so expertly points out, is sounded by the capshrouds, so the fore and aft stays plus the upper shrouds should vibrate sympathetically to a B-flat minor chord.

Once you've got that pungently dissonant C natural humming along in the lowers, you have something that sounds like John Williams' derivative yet strangely compelling score to Star Wars, and that's how you know it's time to put down your screwdriver, open a beer and, from the sanctity of the bridgedeck, think about just why, exactly, the launch girl wears that stud through her tongue.

Carter Brey
Is it spring, yet?

[Warren Kaplan]

Jettison the loos guages overboard and instead bring along the pitch pipes. You can serenade everyone in the yard as you tune your rig. I do confess, Carter, I did not think you tuned Mary Ellen using the pizzicato technique. I though you brought an old bow with you to the yard and you up bowed on the upper shrouds and down bowed on the lowers, adjusting the tension with the turnbuckles, until you could play Turkey In The Straw in tune. I know the fingerings could prove problematic but you have rather large hands.

[barfwinkle]

There are those on this board that DESPERATELY need to launch their boats!!!!

If you are in that serious of a need, then I encourage you (for your own sanity) to seek out someone (in warmer climes for sure) with their boat in the water and their rigging tuned to which ever jig they prefer (I am rather partial to Charlie Daniel's "The Devil Went Down to Georgia") and ask to bum a ride!

Bill

And then there are the NW instigators.

bs

[John Vigor]

"...it's time to put down your screwdriver, open a beer and, from the sanctity of the bridgedeck, think about just why, exactly, the launch girl wears that stud through her tongue.

"Carter Brey
"Is it spring, yet?"

Dear Carter:

You surely must know why the launch girl wears that stud through her tongue. It's a sacrificial zinc to prevent Galvanic corrosion between her nose ring and her belly ring.

I once knew a Hungarian ex-count who owned a beautiful CD33 and he had a fancy female companion called Meta Lurgy who sometimes dressed in an eyecatching aluminum miniskirt and a bronze-threaded bra.

I asked him once if she wasn't scared of electrolysis and he said: "No, she wears sacrificial zinc underpants and changes them every year."

John V.


[/quote]

[Warren Kaplan]

I once knew a Hungarian ex-count who owned a beautiful CD33 and he had a fancy female companion called Meta Lurgy who sometimes dressed in an eyecatching aluminum miniskirt and a bronze-threaded bra.

I asked him once if she wasn't scared of electrolysis and he said: "No, she wears sacrificial zinc underpants and changes them every year."

John V.


[/quote][/quote]


John,
As we cannibis soaked souls of the 60s used to say with a story like that........Far out, man! Far Out!
I trust the old count found it a thrilling experience to be sitting in the cockpit, with a lip lock on fancy Meta Lurgy during a thunderstorm.
At least she had enough sea sense to choose non ferrous metals for her attire. If her name was "the iron maiden" I could see the old boy sailing in circles every time she walked past the compass!

[Don K]

Innamorato's new bowsprit is installed and now reinstalling furler and bob-stay and attempting to re-tune rig. Old bowsprit had a upward warp and thus original (setup) length of bob-stay and furler turnbuckles is off by a couple inches. After sitting for last couple months, there is an obvious "rake" in the mast and mizzen.

Question is: should the rig be exactly straight up (perpendicular)? Once I get that answer, I can apply the right musicology to shroud and stay tension.

CD30K
Cape Coral, FL

PS. how is everyone getting their personal 'pics' in their posts?

[Mark Yashinsky]

Question to your "Question". When you say, "should the rig be exactly straight up (perpendicular)? " do you mean to the boat, or do you mean the mast has a bend in it? With all the talk about adjusting the rig by "Twanging", one also has to be checking if the mast is even straight, and the angles it has w/ the boat, fore/aft, side/side. W/ bends one could have to put a little additional tension on certain shrouds (and have different twangs in each of the shrouds) to help the mast get back on the straight and narrow.

The "personal pics" are avatars that have been discussed. You have to register and then look under the link "My Setting', which has a section to have a small jpg or gif there. Search around, there is an upper limit on the size of the pic file, or Cathy M. might pop in here and remind us all.

[Greg Ross]

Took me several tries to get the file below the size max. By luck I saved as File type "gif" and then resaved as a jpg. This is after reducing down to the stated max. of 50 by 50