Forces on masts should be designed in order to withstand the forces of the wind even under severe conditions. The system is designed according the RCD – Directive 2013/53/EU (Recreational Craft Directive (RCD – Directive 2013/53/EU)) . The arrows in the figure represent the forces from the main sail, and should be understood in this picture as an illustration. Of course all sails attached to the rigging system induce forces, for example the jib, main sail etc. At the right a color scale is visible and the top scale  applies to the colors of the mast. The bottom scale applies to the colors of the steel cables.

The mast is built using shell elements, with quadratic Lagrange polynomials. The Cables use wire elements with Linear Langrange polynomials,  with an additional condition to stay straight when the cables might hang loose under certain conditions (compression). 

All these settings add to a robust and reliable output of the stresses and displacements in the rigging system. Note that the standing rigging system has predefined initial stresses.

Buckling analysis is a very important part of the simulation of a rigging system for yachts.