Have you noticed that your boat sails better on one tack than the other? This could well be because the mast is leaning slightly to port or starboard.
If you want to check your mast it’s fairly easy to do. You’ll need a long, non stretch tape measure. It’s possible to use a halyard but it will make it harder to be accurate.
It’s much easier if you have a handy assistant as well.
Securely fasten your tape measure to a jib halyard and pull the end of the tape measure up to the top of the mast or the hounds on a fractional rig. Put a little bit of tension on the halyard so that you can pull on the tape measure without moving the halyard. Now measure from the top of the mast to the chain plates on each side of the boat. Pull the tape as tight as possible and make sure the tape leads directly between the two points. Check each measurement.
If they are the same then the top of the mast is over the centre line of the boat. If using the halyard itself pull the halyard down to the chainplate on one side and cleat it off. Then move it over to the other side and if the masthead is centred then the halyard will meet the chainplate again.
If the measurements are different then you can “move” the masthead by loosening one cap shroud and tightening the other one in small equal increments, checking with the tape measure as you go. If you don’t feel confident doing this it would be better to engage a rigger.
Once the masthead is centred it’s time to check where the lower shrouds attach to the mast. As there isn’t usually a handy way of using the tape measure we have to do this by sighting up the mast. From deck level look up the back of the mast and check that the mast looks straight. If it looks straight, then it usually is. If not then the lower shrouds can be adjusted in the same manner as the cap shrouds.
This information is intended to be informative rather than instructional. If you are going to adjust the rigging yourself make sure you lubricate the rigging screw threads first and ensure that any locking nuts and split pins are replaced afterwards.
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