link plates

[tciboats]

Hello Folks,
I don't check in here much, more of a lurker or listener than talker but I recently worked on a boat with "link plates" instead of straight wire for the rigging. Can anyone tell me the pro's and con's on such an arrangement.
Thanks,
Tom

[John E Hardiman]

?? Give a description of the shroud/stay from mast tang to chainplate. Like tang-toggle-eye splice-wire shroud-eye splice-toggle-turnbuckle-toggle-chainplate.

[tciboats]

The upper tang was attached to the mast as most other conventional systems. From the tang was attached a toggle then the wire was attached to the toggle with a fork fitting. The other end of the wire terminated at the spreader with another fork attached to the "link plate" which was "rocking" on a pin at the end of the spreader, then a similar arrangement from the bottom of the spreader to the deck chainplate, except at the deck end was a turnebuckle...does this make sense?

[paladin]

Ain't heard about these things in a long time....
but....a gazillion or two years ago when I wuz just starting the Yacht Design Institute and Westlawn courses I remember a paper on these things...and why....but....they are difficult to adjust and there is a lot of added weight aloft unless you have some very custom hardware....and as I recal they were used on multispreader rigs. The problems? were continuous? rigging verses discontinuous? rigging and a hard spot formed at the end of the spreader by the bending of the 1 x 19 over the end of the spreader, especially in hard sailing rigs as in ocean racing. It might be practical for cruising rigs if some custom parts were available such as short turnbuckles with integral toggles to reduce the weight aloft as the adjustment range would be minimal.

[ 10-01-2003, 01:38 PM: Message edited by: paladin ]

[John E Hardiman]

As I recall, things like that are used in rod rigging setups where they didn't want to bend the rod. Weight/windage tradeoff between smaller/lighter high tensile rod vs fittings aloft. What was the hull and rig? Could she have been an old racer that had a change out to cheaper wire?