Er, this is a pretty technical rigging post, feel free not to read.

The shrouds on my boat are steel cables that are attached to the top of the mast. One goes to the port side of the boat, one to the starboard and one to the bow. The one to the bow is called the forestay. They hold up the mast and are under great stress when sailing. They are attached to the boat by lashings, in my case super strong dyneema cord. The badly missed Nick set up all my shrouds expertly in May. https://thequietripple.com/2019/05/08/shroud/

I have now done quite a bit of sailing and the boat has behaved impeccably with no breakage. However the shrouds have become increasingly sloppy, they flap around like anything. This has to be fixed.

I am baffled as to why the shrouds have become so floppy. Can steel cables stretch? It is true that they have been lying around inactive for maybe 15 years and have only been put under tension in my last couple of weeks sailing. I can imagine them stretching a few millimeters but not the several centimeters needed to induce the existing slack. Maybe it is the dyneema lashings that have stretched.

Anyway I re-lash, I think the first time I have used that verb, all the shroud lashings.

I hope they stay tight.