Diamond Stays - Staysail Without Runers

[Lucy52]

I hesitate to post earlier with two recent posts dealing with rigging by those with more knowledge than me.

My boat is set up with diamond stays at the top of the mast to take the load from the stay sail. Whether this needs to be designed in from new or whether an existing mast could modified would be a matter for your rigger.

Photo from aft and photo from forward. No runners needed.

 

[scottie]

Caption
Lucy in the sky with diamonds
Comes to mind

 

[oldharry]

On the Trident 24 which also has jumper stays being a 3/4 rig, the spreaders are mounted on a plate which is then fastened to the spar, in the same way as the main shroud spreaders are on yours. As long as the base plate is big enough to spread the point loading it should be possible to add this to another mast.

 

[zoidberg]

It is clear from Selden's 'Yacht' catalogue and from guidance by several competent riggers that an inner stay may be secured to the mast WITHOUT needing runners, provided that attachment is within about 6% of mast height from the top. That's my understanding, and I quite expect someone - more knowledgable or not - to have other ideas.

Of course, the loads need to be carried down into the hull structure by some additional measures, to prevent the deck lifting....


Edit: I've now managed to peer at the pics, which show the inner stay attached in 'mid panel', and not as suggested above. In those circumstances, I'd rather have runners.

 

[GHA]

I've the same, diamond stays on a cutter rig. Seems to be fine so far. Makes tacking easy solo. Thinking of maybe getting some dyneema attached up there as a extra bulletproof option should things get really nasty with green water over the deck.

 

[GHA]

Edit: I've now managed to peer at the pics, which show the inner stay attached in 'mid panel', and not as suggested above. In those circumstances, I'd rather have runners.

You'd need to do some vector diagrams to calc the forces. My diamond stays are 6mm , so at that shallow angle there will likely be a fair bit of strain(stretch) in the wires before the horizontal forces really get up.

 

[Fr J Hackett]

The other alternative is to have aft lower shrouds.

 

[lw395]

If you take away the masthead forestay, you're left with something pretty similar in concept to an XOD rig. Except that sort of traditional fractional rig would have the main shrouds terminating along with the forestay, close to the jumper struts.
The jumper stays and struts support the mast both sidewise and fore and aft.

The mast looks to me to have fairly generous sections, so perhaps stiff enough for the staying not to be optimal? That might just be an unflattering camera angle though?

 

[Lucy52]

The mast looks to me to have fairly generous sections, so perhaps stiff enough for the staying not to be optimal? That might just be an unflattering camera angle though?

The rigger said she was strongly rigged. A longish quote of one with a shorter mast. Katy Louise has the taller "light airs rig."

In 1978 I ordered a Golden Hind 31 from Terry Erskine Yachts, and took delivery in Plymouth in February 1979 after retiring from the US Air Force with the intent of circumnavigating. To learn rough weather sailing and coastal navigation in rapidly changing and strong coastal currents, a person from the Royal Western Yacht Club took my wife and myself under his wing to teach us by sailing with us up and down the English Channel and making several crossings of the heavily trafficked ship channels to French coastal towns and the Channel Islands. We left in August 1979 only to be caught in the Bay of Biscay 40 miles after rounding Ushant enroute to Cape Finnesterre. We gradually stripped the deck and sails below, and lay ahull quartering up the 50 - 60 ft. breaking waves. We were knocked down a couple times and rolled upside down once by an extra large surf-style breaking wave only to be brought back up by the back side of the wave. Terry had recommended the shorter ocean sailing mast and the extra quartering aft shroud, which I firmly believe prevented us from losing the mast. After riding the storm, lashed in our quarter berths during the entire time after removing all sails, the only damage resulting was torn cockpit weather cloths on the port side of the cockpit.

Over the next 8 years, we put over 50,000 miles total, with over 40,000 ocean miles. As far as I am concerned, The MG designed and Terry Erskine built Golden Hind 31 is one of the best ocean and coastal cruising sailboat for a couple. In addition to its sensible and safe cruising/sailing attributes, it has more storage space for long distance cruising than sailboats 6 - 7 feet longer. We could easily store over 6 months worth of provisions as well as necessary and common equipment. I sold the boat, "HALEKAI", only when I had to go back to Texas to care for elderly and very sick parents. We surely miss her and hope that she is keeping her new owners safe.

Jim & Kitty Haynes

Yes, generous sections.