I have a problem with my standing rigging, I had a professional so called refit the mast after there was some work done to the Boat keel The same person performed a pre-sale, rigging inspection and said that the backstay is too loose and there is signs of compression and cracking of the gelcoat where the mast meets the cabin top. There is no sign of any damage Rott Or movement in the compression post, I'm thinking that the so-called expert has overtensioned the rig with the exception of the fore stay and the back stay. The rest seems extremely tight. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
It's difficult for the forum to give advice on rigging
without knowing the type of rig exactly and all the variables that influence correct rig tension.
Your lowers if you have them and cap shrouds will nearly always be tighter than your back stay and forestay simply because of the angle at which they interact with the mast .It's often the case they are of a larger diameter wire too so they can support the load.
if it where mine, I would go for a sail and load up the rig with plenty of heal ,,,25 deg plus and have a close inspection of the leeward shrouds,,, if they are flopping around they may be too loose and if they are still guitar string tight they could be too tight. Not enough tension can cause shock throughout the rig which can be hard on chainplates and mast steps and may cause the gel coat cracking .Also have a look straight up the mast to see what's happening up there , looking for "radical bends"
I,m just going on the assumption that your rig has inline spreaders or slightly swept .
One of my best investments was to buy a full set of Loos tension gauges. They give me a reference to how tight the wire is and adjustments are made with that knowledge in mind.
Backstay too loose on a fractional rig????? WTF?????
The backstay on fractionals can go from being utterly slack and bouncing around the place, to tight enough to snap the mast. It's designed to be played with like a violin bow; how can it be too tight?
Jolene's info sounds good but as he noted, we need more info about the rig configuration.
