How do I tighten my forestays? (2 images)

[demonboy]

Hi,

Very worried about our forestays (one for jib and one for staysail), which are rather loose. Babystay is fine. This is partly to do with the backstays but over the years these appear to have got very loose and wobbly. The solution is to tighten them, but I don't know how. We are thinking that these type of attachments are not adjustable so maybe we should replace them with something that is.

The two pics show the forestay and then the inner stay. The inner stay has AMCO stamped on it.

Both are Hood Seafurl 3250 furling mechanisms, but is that relevant? Any clues/ideas before I go ahead and replace them?

 

[Salty John]

I think you just need to tighten your backstays; this is the normal way to tension roller furling forestays. If this gives you too much mast rake, then your forestays are too long, which seems unlikely.

 

[demonboy]

Glad you said that! I won't ask how to rig the boat correctly as I understand it is a dark art and cannot possibly be explained in a thread, but any tips would be useful. With the ketch rig I have all sorts of stays (Esper is over-rigged) but knowing where to start would be useful. Should I get the main mast correctly standing first or start from the back with the mizzen backstay and work forwards? Perhaps this should be a new post.....

 

[Salty John]

The spar suppliers such as Seldon and Zspar have teach-ins on rig tensioning on their websites. You should get your masts in column, set the rake and then work progressively through the procedure as explained on these sites. Treat main and mizzen separately and tension the triatic stay, if you have one, last.

 

[pappaecho]

If you tighten the backstays, make sure that the baby stay is not over tightened

 

[lw395]

Don't know about hood, but harken furler has a rigging adjuster buit into it. Dire warnings about checking the locknut etc in the manual!
RTFM or ask Hood or a good rigger I'm afraid.

 

[jerryat]

I have the same model of Hood Seafurl. There is an 'easy' way to adjust the forestay length via an adjustable Norseman type fitting which is inside the aluminium tube immediately above the furling drum.

To access this, you need to remove the sail, then remove the short alloy plate fixed by two screws to the aft face of the foil Undo the four s/s bolts through the clamp that holds the foil in place at the top of the tube(be careful with fingers here because the foil will drop down) and remove it. You will now be able to slide the foil up and down the forestay a short distance.

Undo the three s/s screws at the base of the tube (careful 'cos they're VERY short!) and prise the tube upwards, clear of the drum section. This will expose the Norseman type stud at the bottom of your forestay, together with the s/s locking nut and washer.

Slaken off this nut, pull the locking pin out of the underside of the drum to allow the whole drum assembly to turn, then simply fit a spanner onto the Norseman stud and turn the drum assembly to either tighten or slaken the forestay to taste!

You will need either a second person or a pair of locking grips, to keep the tube and foil as far up the forestay as possible (in order to get room for the spanner) but it's quite simple otherwise.

Be aware that Hood, very sensibly IMHO, have cut a groove about 30mm up from the bottom of the Norseman stud to warn you to undo it no further (unless removing the mast of course) as the minimum safe amount only of stud is engaged at this point.

In your case, just turn the drum while holding the Norseman steady (you must not turn this as you'll be twisting th forestay itself if you do!) and tighten the forestay to remove the slack you are concerned about.

When you're happy, tighten the lock nut, and re-assemble in reverse order.

The biggest problem you face is getting the aluminium tube off the top of the furling drum. If you haven't removed this before and greased it on reassembly, I'm afraid considerable brute force may be needed!

Hope it all goes well!

 

[demonboy]

Jerrycat...that is a priceless answer. Thank you for taking the time out to post that! We have to leave the boat for three weeks tomorrow so this will be top of my list when I return.

Thanks also for the rigging tips.....keep 'em coming! Very useful too.