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What this video covers

Rigging expert Didrik advises leaving standing rigging at its normal tension when a boat is stored ashore for winter — neither slackening nor tightening it.▶ 0:09 Slackening shrouds on a laid-up boat can allow the rig to develop its own resonant frequency and pump in wind, and in at least one documented case a boat lost its mast at the dock after an owner loosened the shrouds.▶ 3:55 The argument for slackening — that the keel pressing upward on land and cold temperatures contracting the steel increase rig tension — is acknowledged as logical but measured as negligible in practice; tensionmeter readings on rigs in sub-zero temperatures showed no meaningful change compared to warm conditions.▶ 2:05 Wire stretch over time is also dismissed: a 20-year-old wire is the same length as when new, unless it was over-tensioned, which is rare.▶ 3:30 When rigging is pre-tensioned to roughly 20% of breaking strength, most constructive stretch is already removed.▶ 2:32 Removing shrouds to fit a winter cover is flagged as dangerous, since the cover acts as a large sail in a storm; any disconnection of lower shrouds for cover fitting requires careful planning.▶ 4:25

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