Basic Santana 35 Rig Tune
I've recieved several request for tips on tuning a Santana 35 rig, so here is the most recent version of my writeup. Although I've sold my S35, I had the rigging figured out pretty well. Fortunately the Santana 35 is a very simple rig to tune yourself...
A good starting place is always where the rig is currently located. First thing to do is take some notes (you’ll have to go out sailing for this). You need a moderately windy day—enough to fully power up the boat with some crew on the rail—best is to be at the upper end of the #2 with full crew weight in full hike mode, but this can be hard to arrange… Top of the #1 or #3 is fine, but you want at least 4 people on the rail. You are trying to load up the mast and see what happens. Sail upwind with the everything trimmed in tight and loaded up. You can sail a little fat to heel the boat a bit harder than normal.
Now, sight up the mast (along the main sail track). Is it straight? Does it sag to leeward at the spreaders? Does it sag to leeward at the hounds? Take note of the bend if any. If it is straight, that is very good.
Now, check the leeward shrouds. Are they flapping in the breeze? Are they still very tight? Are the intermediates and the shrouds about the same amount of tension (or flop)? You should expect that they are slightly loose (ie, a few inches of sag), but not totally flapping in the breeze. If they are still tight, either you don’t have the boat fully powered up, or it is possible the whole rig is overtight (very hard to do on the Santana).
Finally, take note of the helm: do you have lee helm upwind (very bad)? Neutral helm? A nice weather helm (3-6 degrees of tiller offcenter)? Tons of weather helm (tiller in your lap)? This is a bit arbitrary, as slight main trim will change your helm, but if you are generally not happy with the helm you’ll have to change the rake---otherwise leave it where it is.
Now tack the boat and take notes of the other side. Was the rig was straight on both tacks, and the slack in the leeward shrouds moderate but not completely flapping in the breeze? Did you have a nice weather helm on both tacks? If so, then you are done. Crack a good beer and be glad you don’t have any further adjustments to make (actually, not quite true as you should still measure to be sure the rig is centered in the boat—see below).
Preparation:
Make sure you have all the appropriate tools: correct size wrenches for all turnbuckles (not adjustable wrenches, if you can avoid it—definitely not pliers), grease for the turnbuckles, new cotter pins, etc. Be sure to use generous lubricant on the threads (Lanicote is my favorite, because it stays put when you go sailing and do further adjustments). If there is any sign of galling, replace the turnbuckles. While you are at it, check all the standing rigging down at deck level, including the chainplate where it goes through the deck. Sailing in fresh water, you shouldn’t have too much problem with corrosion, but look very carefully anyway.
Mast rake:
The first step is to pick an appropriate mast rake. This is a combination of headstay length and position of the mast step. If you had no problems previously with your upwind helm, then I would leave these alone. If you have lee helm upwind (very unlikely on a Santana 35), then you will need to rake the mast back. If you have too much weather helm (also unlikely) then you can rake further forward. For all the science on this, I find that adjusting your helm is the most important aspect of rake. In the San Francisco fleet we did a bunch of measurements when the fleet was very active, and found that rake differed quite a bit between the top boats and didn’t seem to have a huge impact on actual upwind performance. In general, we rake back pretty hard on the bay (mast step as far forward as it will go).
If you are racing predominately in light wind, you’ll want to tend towards more forward rake. In heavier air (ie, San Francisco), more aft rake is better. General rule of thumb: raking back helps depower the boat.
After that discussion, I’d still say stick with your current rake for starters—you can always change it later.
Centering the rig:
First take note of how tight things are, and compare them to the sailing test above. If the rig was previously too loose (leeward shrouds flapping in the breeze), then you’ll be shooting for a tighter rig. If not, then you’ll be shooting for something about like what you already have. Start by loosening shrouds and intermediates a bit (but not sloppy loose), then tighten the shrouds until they are reasonably firm (but not super tight), and the same number of threads are showing on each side. Check top and bottom threads on the turnbuckle, in case someone screwed the turnbuckle on one side first. Now you need to be sure the mast is centered. Put on some backstay—enough to firm up the rig a bit. Take the main halyard to the toe rail on starboard, pull out all extra slack and cleat it off. Take it to the port toe rail. You can also run a tape measure up on the halyard (presuming there is no wind in the harbor), or better a piece of wire rigging that is long enough (if you have one lying around). Something that has no stretch. If the mast is not centered, tighten one side, and loosen the other until it is as perfect as you can get it. This step is important. That said, Santana 35s are not quite symmetrical, so if you’re a just a touch off, don’t worry too much.
Now, tighten up the shrouds several full turns each. Wind on the intermediates (again, same number of threads on each side until they are tensioned but not tight). Add a little more backstay. Check for centered again.
Straightening the rig:
Sight up the mast (leaving moderate backstay on). If the mast isn’t straight, adjust the intermediates until it is. Usually this will only take a ½ turn or so, maybe a whole turn on one turnbuckle. Then tighten each intermediate a couple whole turns. Everything still straight? Good—if not, loosen one side ¼ turn, tighten the other the same. Keep going until the mast is straight, centered, and the shrouds and intermediates all have decent tension on them. This shouldn’t actually take too much tuning. If the standing rigging was made correctly, you will often have a straight, centered mast the first time just by counting turns on the turnbuckles.
Tensioning the rig:
Your goal is a tight rig that is straight on both tacks. The Santana is a flexible boat, so you’ll be putting quite a bit of tension in the rig. This is where the notes from your sailing test matter. If the leeward shrouds were flapping in the breeze, you are going to want to get them tighter than they were. However, on the Santana, the leeward shrouds will always be somewhat loose when sailing to weather. If you try to tighten them up so the leeward shrouds are still tight upwind you will break something.
Tighten the shrouds until they have pretty good tension (make sure there is grease in the threads as you tighten). Tighten the intermediates until they have moderate tension (ultimately they will have much less tension than the shrouds). You have to guess at this step, which is why your previous notes from sailing help you get a good first start. Double check that the rig is straight and centered and gear up to go sailing…
On the water tune:
The only way to get the fine tune is on the water, with good breeze and a helpful crew. Best to combine this with a practice session. If you can’t get the right conditions, just tie spectra through the turnbuckles so they don’t unwind and wait for a better day.
Do the same step as I mentioned above, but this time we are going to make some adjustments:
Sail upwind on starboard tack (steady breeze, crew on the rail, rig fully powered up, sails and runners trimmed as best you can). Is the rig straight? If it is pulled to weather at the spreaders, you’ll be loosing both intermediates. If it is sagging to leeward at the spreaders, you’ll be tightening both intermediates. How loose is the leeward shroud: a) bone tight, b) tensioned, but easily deflected by pushing on it, c) slightly loose—maybe 3” of deflection if you press on it gently, or d) flapping in the breeze--1’ or more of deflection? “b” is OK if it isn’t super windy or you don’t have full crew. “c” is what you should expect if you have full crew and are at the upper end of your current headsail. Even something between “c” & “d” may be fine if you are sailing in 25 knots with full crew. “a” can be a problem—puts a lot of load on the rig…
Now, tack over and take note of everything on port. Hopefully you see exactly the same on port. If not, your adjustments will be slightly asymmetrical.
While you are on port, go to the leeward side with your appropriate tools (best to tie them too you—they love to slide overboard while you are working on the low side). Tighten/loosen the leeward intermediate as necessary. Try 1 full turn, unless you were seeing some pretty serious deflection—then you can go for 2 full turns. Take careful note of how many turns you put on. Tighten the shroud if you need to (or loosen, but that is unlikely).
Tack back to starboard and look at the rig. Better than before? Good. Make the same adjustments on the leeward side.
Keep up the above steps until the rig is perfect, or you are seasick from wrenching on the low side (yes, this can happen). It really shouldn’t take more than a couple tacks on each side to get pretty darn close.
Some other notes:
I quit putting cotter pins back in the turnbuckles, because they are a pain to put in and take out and consequently you won’t tune your rig when it needs it. I loop spectra through both turnbuckles (well, all three on my current boats because they are double-spreader boats) and tie it off. Then tape it up with electrical tape. You just want to make sure they won’t unwind. If I go offshore or overnight then I put cotter pins in…
On the S35, be sure to inspect the bolt that holds the shrouds to the mast. Look at the caps sticking out of the mast (where the shrouds terminate)—if they don’t sit flush to the mast (ie, look like they are bent down), you should probably replace them. The originals were aluminum and will fail from stress; Navtec makes new stainless ones for an ungodly price but they will last until the end of time.
Another thing to inspect is the spreader connections. Originally, there was just a flat bar through the mast that the spreaders were inserted over. The SF Fleet pretty much all had a reinforcement added that attaches to each spreader and wraps around the front of the mast. You may not need the reinforcement, but every once in a while it’s worth disassembling the spreaders and making sure everything is good (no cracks etc). Also worth checking where the shrouds attach at the end of the spreaders (remove any leather covering to check carefully). If a shroud comes off the end of the spreader you will loose the rig.
If your rig is straight and you still don’t like your performance, remember these tips:
Upwind: in any real breeze (12 knots or more), the runners should be on HARD. In 25 knots, VERY HARD. This means you want to keep them and their hardware in very good shape, because if they break, it is the skipper that pays (ie, you could get hit by the pieces and injured). When we raced in a breeze, we’d put the runners (which had 2-1 purchase) on as hard as a strong person (but not a body builder) could get them with the Barient 25 winches we had for runner. If you aren’t pointing as well as you like, try some more runner…
Downwind: you can always “fraculate” the rig. Take a jib halyard, attach it to the tack ring at the headstay and grind it on a ways. The forestay should now be flapping about. Getting the mast forward is FAST downwind, particularly in the 8-15 knot wind range (less than that and you are sailing hot angles, more than that and the wind pushes it forward just fine).
Feel free to send in any questions or better suggestions..