Forestay replacement with Plastimo roller reefing

[Dazedkipper]

Has anyone had any experience of replacing the forestay on a yacht that's fitted with a Plastimo 809s (or similar) roller reefing system? The stay has an elephant's foot at the head and a bottlescrew at the tack so must be withdrawn upwards through the masthead. What I can't figure out is how the threaded stud termination will pass through the foil. The wire is in a plastic figure of 8 section which is open on one edge to provide the sail luff groove and also is open between the two '0's.
The only way I can see to do it is either to completely dismantle the foil or cut the termination off the stay and re-swage a new one when the wire has been threaded through.

 

[VicS]

Has anyone had any experience of replacing the forestay on a yacht that's fitted with a Plastimo 809s (or similar) roller reefing system? The stay has an elephant's foot at the head and a bottlescrew at the tack so must be withdrawn upwards through the masthead. What I can't figure out is how the threaded stud termination will pass through the foil. The wire is in a plastic figure of 8 section which is open on one edge to provide the sail luff groove and also is open between the two '0's.
The only way I can see to do it is either to completely dismantle the foil or cut the termination off the stay and re-swage a new one when the wire has been threaded through.

The Plastimo furling gear is designed so that it can be fitted to an existing forestay without lowering the mast. It is assembled section by section. The existing bottle screw is retained but the longer alternative side plates are needed.

Alternatively it can be fitted to a new, longer, forestay without reusing the bottle screw. The short side plates are then used.

The installation instructions can be found at http://www.bluemoment.com/manuals/plastimo_s_series_roller_reefing.pdf although they do refer to an older version of the gear and are perhaps not quite as clear as they might be.

A trip round a marina or boatyard will reveal all sorts of lash-ups for this gear as a result of people not reading or understanding the instructions properly or attempting to use the wrong side plates !

 

[homer]

Second the notion that you do not need to remove the forestay. The bottom fixing is not so simple; I have a large bolt through the side plates, the bottle screw and the chain plate (a sandwich, with the chain plate in the middle). Adjustment of the bottle screw is awkward but otherwise it's fine. Only fitted on an inner forestay but has worked well for 6 years.

 

[Dazedkipper]

Thanks guys but I need to replace the forestay not fit a new furling system......

 

[AndrewL]

This year I replaced my forestay which my old Plastimo 608 was fitted to. I lowered the mast, removed the stay & furler and a rigger cut the old stay and fitted a new wire with swaged stud. However, an accident stepping the mast damaged the old roller furler beyond repair so I bought a new Plastimo 609. I was then faced with removing the new stay from the damaged furler. I did not want to dismantle the furler as that required drilling out the rivets from the foil sections (older 608s were riveted) and I did not want to risk damaging the stay.

I assume that you have removed the furler & stay from the boat. I found it simpler to work from the head.

1) If fitted, remove the plastic halyard diverter. It is in 2 parts, the diverter wheel has a large hole in the middle which will pass over any fittings on the stay. A smaller split plastic ring encases the wire and fits into the large hole in the diverter wheel.
2) Remove the plastic end cap from the top of the foil. It has 1 or 2 screws, stainless in aluminum so may be tricky. Again there are 2 parts, the cap has a large hole which will pass over the stay fittings and a smaller split plastic ring (which Plastimo refer to as a bearing).
3) The plastic figure of 8 section is in 1.5 metre lengths. You are now able to start withdrawing the first section. I gripped it with some long nosed pliers and pulled. The plastic 8 section is flexible, once it is part way out you can pull it off the stay so that the swaged fitting does not have to pass through the figure of 8 section. Carry on withdrawing more of the figure 8 section until the entire length is out.
4) Slide the next length of figure 8 section up to the head of the furler and withdraw using the same method.
5) Once all the figure 8 section is removed you should be able to withdraw the entire stay from the now empty furler.

Reassembly is the reverse. It is not worth mousing the old stay, you can easily push it up the middle of the foil.

The final section of aluminium foil section will have been cut to length and so is shorter. When reassembling put the shorter piece of figure 8 section so that it goes into a full length foil section, that way the butt joints of plastic figure 8 section do not line up with the joints in the foil section.

 

[Dazedkipper]

Thanks Andrew, I see what you did. I can't see it working on mine because I can't remove the stay/foil from the mast. The top swage is an elephant's foot (ball end) that fits into a housing in the masthead casting so to remove it you have to pull the stay up and out of the casting. But, I'm wondering if your method will work from the bottom? I have a riveted foil and the bottom section fits into the drum casting so as long as it comes apart ok.......

 

[chewi]

There's a few clues here that have been missed.
Because the plastimo is designed to be fitted around an existing forestay it should be feasible to reverse the procedure. disconnect the foil from the drum, withdraw the plastic liner from the bottom section of the foil. That should allow the stay to emerge through the slot in the foil, but you have to do that all the way up, so you have to unplug the foil sections from one another until the whole foil is at deck level. That may be difficult.

When you have done that, the old stay is still attached to the rig, so you have to replace it and reassemble the foil either on deck or in situ around the new stay.

Otherwise you use a halyard to support the mast, drop the whole foil/stay and do it all at deck level, where you can feed a bare cut end through the whole assembled foil in either direction and fit a staylock.

based on my own experience with a Plastimo 406 assembled to a stay in situ, and later (on another boat!) replacing the forestay through a Rotostay on the ground.