How do I remove the forestay from a Plastomo 608 roller reefer?

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ianwoods

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Hi, Anyone suggest how I remove forestay from inside the roller reefing foil? Never done this op. before. Mast is down and foil alongside. Seems to be a lot of rivets on the foil and at the roller drum. Bottle screw at bottom; swaged eye at the top. I assume I will have to get it out in one piece so that I can have a new one made up to exactly the same length. How do I get it back in again? many thanks for any guidance.
 
the forestay is held into the slot in the foil by a number of lengths of plastic tubing that in section looks like the figure 8 with a slot cut at one end. the stay fits into the inner section by clipping through the 8 and the sliders or luff section slide up the other section of the 8. to take thefoil off the forestay take off the reefing drum from the foil, only one allen screw (do not take the drum apart or you will have the ball bearings all over the place) and you can then slide out the platic sleeves and the foil will then come off the stay. you will also have to take off the top bearing by removing the stop at the top and sliding off the top swivel.
 
What is above the bottle screw?

I renewed mine last year. What I had was a swaged eye at the top, and a Sta-lok at the bottom.

I tried to dismantle the Sta lock, but I couldn't get it apart. The bottom part unscrewed ok, but the top part was solid onto the wire. Ended up applying a propane torch while holding the wire in a pair of pliers as a heat sink to stop the heat reaching the drum.

As it turned out, the drum was knackered anyway, so replaced it and the first section of foil.

I then slid the new stay down the foil, and fitted a new Sta-lok on the bottom.

There is a guy at Seateach who will give you lots of advice, can't remember his name, but he helped me loads.
 
Can you take it intact to the rigger (or the rigger to it)? Get the expert to remove the old one and replace it with the new one of the correct length. At worst, get them to show you how to remove the old one and insert the new one.
 
Hi

Plastimo is an easy system to work on. It can be fitted onto the existing forestay with the mast still stepped. The hole in the drum is wide enough to allow swaged fittings to pass through

I would sugest leaving the forestay attached to the top of the mast,

Remove bottle screw,
Remove the drum (one allen stud about 5mm?)
Slide out the plastic inner sections (its in 1.5m? lengths)
You will have to slide all the plastic inners down to remove them.

If you are just replacing forestay there is no need to take the foil apart, the foil has a "C" cross section, once the plastic inner is removed it just lifts off the forestay.
The top of the last section has a cap and tolron bearing that will have to be removed too, but thats just a grub screw.

Now measure stay length or take it to a rigger. You don't need a stalock, norseman fitting at the bottom. If you take the drum to the rigger you can make sure the swage passes through the hole in the drum before its swaged on.

Hope that helps, you can download a .pdf instruction manual from plastimo website.

David
 
Hello, Many thanks for your informative suggestions which I will follow through. I think after 15 years of usage renewal is due even for insurance purposes. Best wishes to you for the New Year. Ian.
 
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