Sidestays - New Owner

[treadlegal]

In a moment of weakness, I recently bought a 1980 Macgreggor 22, with trailer, at a property auction. All previous sailing experience is on Hobie 18's, many, many years ago. This boat needs some minor work, but all of the main pieces seem to be present. My questions are: Every picture I can find of a Macgreggor 22 shows both sidestays, or shrouds, being secured to the same point on each side of the boat, alongside about the middle of the windows. The previous owner of this boat had installed additional attachment points on the hull, about two feet forward of the original points (which are also still there). The only thing I can think of is that he (or she) was dividing the shrouds on each side, attaching the ones coming over the spreaders to one point and the shrouds coming straight from the mast to another, separate point. Is this normal? Is there some benefit for this that anybody can think of? Does anybody know any other reason this separate point might be here? Also, is it normal to have minor "oil canning" where the boat rests on the trailer? I'm thinking about widening the bunkers, but if the canning is normal I won't worry about it. Finally (hah! finally) I'm going to repaint. Is it alright to support the boat, off the trailer and raised above the ground, with multiple boards going from the ground up to the bottom side of the rub rails? Thanks for any info anybody can provide. I'm looking forward to getting on the water.

[Daniel]

The only thing I can think of is that he (or she) was dividing the shrouds on each side, attaching the ones coming over the spreaders to one point and the shrouds coming straight from the mast to another, separate point.

Or perhaps the attaching points are for baby stays for the purpose of raising and lowering the mast

[treadlegal]

Thanks for your response. I guess I'll just have to remain baffled.

[JohnCT]

If the top shrouds are forward of the mast, the mast will bend in the opposite direction, with any pre-bend bowed towards the stern. Sail shape would be terrible and you wouldn't be able to tighten the back stay to de-power the main.

If the lower shrouds were that far forward, they could put some pre bend in the mast, but adding back stay tension would cause the shrouds to go slack as more bend was put in for sail trim.

Please post a picture.

I strongly suggest putting the shrouds where they were designed to go.

Just my 2 cents

[treadlegal]

I'd like to thank everyone who attempted to answer this question - which has been confounding me for over two years. I finally figured out that the extra attachment points are "baby" stays that you use to keep the mast from leaning back and forth while raising it with a solo mast raising system. One tip off was the fact that they were installed on either side directly aligned with the mast step. Somebody else has suggested this months ago, and I finally looked it up. Whew!

[Herschel]

In a moment of weakness, I recently bought a 1980 MacGregor 22, with trailer, at a property auction. All previous sailing experience is on Hobie 18's, many, many years ago. This boat needs some minor work, but all of the main pieces seem to be present.

As another old Hobie 18 sailor (#10803) turned MacGregor sailor, welcome! One issue regarding shrouds, in general, that I have been careful about is the age of the shrouds. I had a Hobie 18 dismast event at the seven year mark when a shroud failed after several seasons of use in saltwater, so four years ago I took my '98 Mac26X forestay and sacrificed it to see what the condition, presumably was of my stays. Sent it to West Marine for a replacement and had their tech a cut and examine the old stay. Based on the data from that examination, I continued using the original shrouds plus the new forestay. I am now almost totally in freshwater, but will sacrifice another shroud this spring to see what the current condition of them is and go from there.