Odd rigging... What are these for?

[realnutter]

My Scow has rotating mast... the shrouds and forestay meet on a fitting on the front of the mast, with no spreaders etc...

About 6 feet up the mast, again on the front face, is an eye, with two short - about 18" - wires attached:



Any ideas what they are for? The boat's rigged for a spinnaker, and this is the only eye on the front of the mast, but it seems a bit high for the spinnaker pole...

[trebor]

Trapeze ?

[jpa_wfsc]

If the shrouds passed down through the outer eye on each side, you would have a tension only spreader arrangement. This would tend to prevent the mast bending sideways without the mechanical difficulty of spreaders on a rotating mast. There was a time when spreaders were only used to prevent mast bend. Now more often than not they are set up to promote mast bend when it is windy by being set too long so making the stay tension push that section of mast forward.

[realnutter]

Ah-ha! That might be it!!

I've seen pics of Scows fitted with diamond stays and forward angled spreaders to stop mast flex, but mine doesn't have those.... I guess I'll have to sail it to see if mast bend is a problem...

[JimC]

Never seen such a setup, but its difficult to imagine what else they might be that short: you'll have to see how they line up with the shrouds. Must admit though as on 95% of older boats the lee shroud goes slack I really can't see them doing very much.

[Michael Brigg]

I think these may be a rather clever device to produce a more wing like aerofoil shape to the sail.

My guess here is that these short strops are slightly short and attach to the shroud. The windward shroud tightens and this pulls the front of the mast up to windward, which will not only induce a bend in the mast, but more importantly will automatically overrotate the mast to windward, thereby acting as a Camber inducer.

The clue to this will lie in the gooseneck. Is it a universal jointed gooseneck, or is it fixed to move only in the vertical plane of the mast?

If universal, then the rig is designed to be camber induced.

[realnutter]

Michael... the gooseneck moves up and down only.... the mast rotates, but at the same angle as the boom... no over-rotation is possible...