Forestay mystery on a Malo 40h

[XWZ]

Hi all,

I'm wondering if someone knows what this is, and its purpose.

I'm referring to the steel cable threaded trough a steel pulley built in the top of the forestay.

Let's go in order:
In this picture there is something out of place: the white/yellow spinnaker halyard goes trough the halyard diverter, which it's facing forward instead of aft, and the genoa halyard is laying against the mast.
I've turned the diverted around 180* so that I could thread the white/blue halyard instead, and use that for the genoa.

Now I'm looking at that metal pulley built in the forestay and wondering what is it's main function. Both ends run all the way down the mast.

Since the top of the forestay swivels, should that metal pulley be pointing forwards or sideways? Any idea?

Thanks

 

[benjenbav]

I wonder if it’s for a spinnaker snuffer?

 

[William_H]

The sheave and wire in the forestay would not be uncommon for use with hank on jibs. (or jib in a track) Does the wire have a rope spliced into it for use as a halyard? The spinnaker halyard through the diverter seems a mistake to me. Sorry not much knowledge of furling jibs and use of halyard diverter. ol'will
PS if forestay is very old might be time for a replacement without the sheave.

 

[Porthandbuoy]

That look like an old Colnbrook furling system where the stay + foil rotates, not the foil around the static stay as in a modern system. If that is the case the wire must be the genoa halyard as using either the white/yellow or blue/white one would result in a disastrous wrap.
On my system, now replaced, the stay inside the foil was a solid st/st rod.

 

[littledancersadhu]

I have a simular pulley on my colnebrook furler , the wire uphaul for the genua goes up to the pulley and back down to the furler where it is tensioned via a bottle screw

 

[XWZ]

The sheave and wire in the forestay would not be uncommon for use with hank on jibs. (or jib in a track) Does the wire have a rope spliced into it for use as a halyard? The spinnaker halyard through the diverter seems a mistake to me. Sorry not much knowledge of furling jibs and use of halyard diverter. ol'will
PS if forestay is very old might be time for a replacement without the sheave.

Yes you're correct. The spinnaker halyard sun inside the diferter is wrong. I've already fixed that last week
And yes, the wire is spliced to a rope and used as a jib halyard, although a very old system indeed. I'll have to go up the mast as I fixed one problem, and I made 3 more

 

[XWZ]

That look like an old Colnbrook furling system where the stay + foil rotates, not the foil around the static stay as in a modern system. If that is the case the wire must be the genoa halyard as using either the white/yellow or blue/white one would result in a disastrous wrap.
On my system, now replaced, the stay inside the foil was a solid st/st rod.

You are indeed correct! I've been using the blue/white one as halyard for the genoa run inside the diverter, and it works fine for now. I'll keep a close eye and see if it chafes somewhere.