"Gunner Asch" wrote in message
...

Im looking for a wire cable "tension gauge" to use for adjusting
rigging tension on my sailboats.

Gunner

Gunner, on boats of that size a tension gauge is overkill. Just set them up
initially by hand until they "feel right". Then take it for a sail and sail
it close-hauled first on one tack and then the other and adjust things until
the mast stands in column and the jib luff isn't overly scalloped (you'll
never get it perfectly straight). It doesn't take long to develop the feel.
To get the mast standing perpendicular to the deck, hoist the end of a long
measuring tape to the masthead and measure the distances to port and
starboard chain plates and adjust as necessary. To adjust the rake of the
mast, just use that measuring tape as a plumb bob, and adjust headstay and
backstay tension until it has the rake you want (usually a little aft).

....says a guy who's done it that way on every boat he's ever tuned, over
forty years, up to boats in the forty- to fifty-foot range.

Tom