We redid everything except the backstay, which had been replaced in 2005 with a rod. The backstay was in great condition, and was already setup with the ssb insulators, so we felt it would be silly to replace a perfectly good rod. We used 316 stainless 1×19 wire, in two diameters: 3/8″ for the forestay and uppers, 5/16″ for the lowers, the babystay, and the intermediate backstays. We used norseman fittings, top and bottom, so that we could do everything ourselves. We measured from scratch, so to speak–from the hole in the tangs to the holes in the chainplate. Then we subtracted an amount for the upper terminal, the lower terminal, and the turnbuckle in order to determine what length to cut the wire. We cut the wire using a diamond blade on a dremel tool. This works just fine, but is slow. If you have a grinder, get a thin cutoff blade for it and use that (by the end we got around to doing it this way). We did all of this in the living room at our old place, 2,000 miles away from the boat, hoping that our measurements were all correct (we wanted to have it all ready to go when the boat arrived in the workyard, to minimize yard expenses). Here is our final spreadsheet of numbers. I decided on this plan using Brion Toss’s “Rigging Apprentice”. I used his numbers for constructional stretch as well. Like many do-it-yourself minded cruisers, we are much indebted to Toss for passing on his knowledge. When we restepped the mast, we discovered with delight that our measurements were spot on–each turnbuckle is now extended slightly more than halfway, which allows for some additional stretch and some tightening when we do a final tuning of the rig. Instead of using cotter pins to lock off the turnbuckles, we put a small machine screw through each hole with a nylok nut–it’s way faster to remove the nuts and pull out the machine screw than to bend the cotter pin back and pull it out–and the machine screws don’t cut and rip things like the cotter pins do.
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