I have a similar problem as jwells, as I discussed in an earlier post about my forestay crack.
In fact, I need to remove and either replace or at least inspect ALL my chainplates, forestay and backstay. Is this something I can (or should) do one chainplate at a time? Is this something I can (or should) do all at the same time? i.e. remove them all and use four halyards to hold the mast up?
If I do only one at a time, do I need to de-tension ALL the standing rigging completely? or can I leave them all somewhat tensioned except for the one I'm removing, and use a halyard to keep the missing one from bending/breaking the mast?
Should I de-tension them all completely, or is that bad for the mast if I'm in the water?
I'm not finding anything about this in Nigel Calder yet, so I thought I'd try here. If it's in the manual or a tech note somewhere, maybe you could just point me to that?
I'm thinking that the best way is to de-tension them all but still keep them somewhat tensioned and then use two halyards to replace the missing stay's tension, right?
Ben Ethridge
Miami, FL
1984 MK1 Hull# 263
Ben, I've always done one at a time.
Stu Jackson, C34IA Secretary, C34 #224, 1986, SR/FK, M25 engine, Rocna 10 (22#)
You can safely take most of the tension off all of the shrouds or stays and your mast will not be in danger of topping over. This does not mean completely slack - do keep some tension on. Slacken a wire to half ending tension, do it's opposing wire repeat for all four long wires (caps, backstay, forestay). As you remove each long wire, do one at a time, and simultaneous tension a halyard as stand-in for the removed wire. Do your work, re-tension the wire, repeat the process for the next one. Don't worry about the lowers as you can slacken them as much as you want without the need for halyard support.
Nick Caballero
Retired C36/375IA Mk II Technical Editor