Tie rod on a 48
Dear all,
while we discussed the repair of the mast foot (see the corresponding thread in the maintenance forum), the rigger noted that there is no tie rod on the boat -- nothing to tie down the center of the deck to the steel frame on the keel. He believes that the compression force of the main shrouds should probably be countered by a tie rod to prevent the bubble deck from bulging upwards.
The mast shoe seems to be designed to take a tie rod terminal -- however, there is no corresponding structure visible on the ceiling / deck collar. Now there have unfortunately been some modifications on our boat before we bought her, so here is a question to all of the owners of the 48 and of course to Lars: was there a tie rod originally, or was there none?
Best regards,
Martin (Age of Swan, 48/039)

Dear Martin
The original setup had all halyard winches on the mast, and with a bulkhead near the mast a tie rod is not needed.
If there now are halyard winches and lead blocks aft of the mast a tie rod would be appropriate. The upper end replaces the aftermost mast collar bolt, either with a dome nut on the rod end, or a threaded sleeve for it below deck. The latter alternative recommended.
Kind regards
Lars

Lars:

Should one try to have any halyards running through turning blocks toward the back of the mast, so the tie rod can more directly take up the loads? I've got 4 blocks either side of the mast, and hadn't worried too much about routing my active halyards through the aftermost blocks. I guess it makes sense and is simple enough, I just wondered your thoughts, with our boats being so well put together, would it really matter if my heaviest loads were at the center or even forward of center instead of aft?

Thanks as always,

Geoff, Corazon, 411#41

Geoff
Thank you for your observation.
The halyard lead blocks are aligned with the halyard exits, and the halyards should not chafe on the exit sides. If they do the wrong lead block is probably used. In other words you should not move a halyard to another lead block.
The distance between the tie rod and the lead blocks is fairly small, the mast collar area well reinforced, and therefore it should not have much significance where the loaded lead blocks are.
Kind regards
Lars