Seldén mast rigging and tuning guide

Hi all,

Currently when I bring my mast down, I mark the current stay positions with a bit of tape. When the time comes I bring them back and aim for nothing more than restoring the old setup. This is just because rigging is uncharted territory for me.

During a webinar of Zeilen magazine some attendee pointed to this mast rigging guide by Selden. It contains a wealth of information and guidelines for specific type of sailboat rigs. As I am no expert I cannot judge the insights but it sure looks comprehensive and pretty universally applicable, as-in not selden specific.

For the sportina I find that we have: a fractional rig, deck-stepped mast, swept spreaders with single aft lower shrouds which means pages 45-46 apply to our situation. Table of contents below, happy reading! Let me know what you think!

Table of contents:

  1. Introduction 4
  2. Rig types 6
  3. Longitudinal rigging 8
  4. Lateral rigging 10
  5. Running rigging 12
  6. Preparing the yacht for rigging 15
  7. Checking the mast 16
  8. At the crane 22
  9. Keel-stepped masts 24
  10. Alternative rigging of jib furling system 29
  11. Tensioning the cap shrouds 31
  12. “The folding rule method” 32
  13. Tuning for safety 33
  14. Masthead rigs 35
  15. Fractional rigs 45
  16. 19/20 rig and similar 51
  17. Bergström-Ridder rig 53
  18. Booms 56
  19. Rodkicker 59
  20. Working aloft 60
  21. Unstepping the mast 63
  22. Annual maintenance 64
  23. Damage or cosmetic flaws? 68
  24. Storage 69
  25. Mounting new fittings 70
  26. Masts which are seldom unstepped 71
  27. Boat ashore with the rig still in place 71
  28. Calculating mast and rig dimensions 72
  29. Positive roach + in-mast furling 75
  30. Sail slides and sail entry (MDS) 76
  31. The Seldén product range 77
  32. Notes 90
  33. Conversion factors 90