J/30 Class Association Forums J/30 Forum The Boat, Sails and Equipment wintering w/mast up

This year i'm going to winter Phantom with the mast up. Question for those of you in the north East, Do you loosen the shrouds for the winter?

once you are in cradle or on stands you just may want to check what tension you are at ... the body does flex ... depending on how you are settled ... think about more than expected tension possibly breaking seals at chain plates as the most obvious problem.

we often see dumb things like the door to the vee berth not able to close once on stands.

cradle seems to be less distorting, if they indeed place the body just where it is supposed to rest.

there is talk also of mast deform with years of racing tension on it with a hard down backstay.

so a related question is do we leave any backstay pressure on it at all?

standard practice is to run the halyards away from mast so they do help support the mast

On Rhapsody the shrouds are backed off six full turns to take the pressure off the chain plates. The headstay isn't touched and the backstay is left loose.

Halyards are skied to protect them in the mast and a messenger line tied on to retrieve them in the spring. The other end of the halyard is coiled in a trash bag tied to the mast base.