Shroud Zig-Zag
I had LeFiell Mfg. make new lower spreaders last year. I put them on and had a rigger come by to do a static tune at the dock. No issues were noted, and I expected none really. But the other day while I was looking the rig over as I frequently do, I noticed that when I sighted up the cap shrouds from near the chainplates and on up to the lower spreader tips and then up to the upper tips and on up to the mast top, that the wire appeared to run kind of in a zig-zag way. I expected the wire to either be in nearly the same plane or a nice curve due to some aft rake in the mast, but it was obvious that the lower tips were guiding the wire aft about 1.5 inches from the path they "should" follow as the wire leads up to and thru the upper tips. It was like there was 1.5" of aft sweep in the new lower spreaders, though I specified to the makers that they were zero offset. First, is this a problem? Second, if so, is this a problem that might be easily cured by re-tuning the lower shrouds to pull the middle of the mast forward (seems like an awful lot of forward twank would be required). I could alway have new upper made that would compensate for some of the zig-zag issue? What to you think?
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