lengthening forestay - how?

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Ardenfour

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I have been offered a roller reefing system to replace my hanked-on system. My existing forestay measures 11.1m pin to pin, but the roller system with forestay measures 10.7m, so 400mm shorter. How feasible is it to increase this with, say, a length of chain or a wire strop? The roller forestay is 8mm compared to my 6mm, has a swaged eye at the top and a StaLok rigging screw at the bottom.
 
400 mm sounds a bit long for a bottle screw. Maybe two long flat SS plates with yokes / pins at each end and welded together.
 
Or get a rigger to make up a 400mm strop and fit a shackle at the join or whatever is needed to fit in. Incidentally you don't really need a rigging screw in the forestay if you are happy with the mast verticality so perhaps leave rigging screw out and make strop longer. Tension is set by the backstay good luck olewill
 
There is far more to this than just adding some extension device. The lead of the halyard into the mast, the lead of the furling line, the relative regidity of the lower swivel, high furling drum, low upper swivel. More information is required to give decent advice, I would suggest.
 
Thanks for replies. I totally agree, more to this than just length. The new forestay is an integral part of the roller system, the lower end ôf which terminates in a thread for a bottle screw. There are no plates here so would seem to rely on a locked-off rigging screw to prevent rotation of the forestay. The top swivel incorporates a sheave, halyard is led back down the foils, so wrap is not an issue. This suggests to me that some kind of forestay extension at the top would be the way to go.
The whole system appears quite simple, and whilst I could transfer it all to my existing forestay with some modification to the clamping arrangement, I like the idea of being able to revert to the old system if it all goes belly up.
 
Ours has the wire jib halyard rolled up in the sail too. I think it's a rotostay system. http://www.catamaransite.com/rotostay_furler.html

The bottom of ours looks like this:

and the top looks like this:



There are at least 2 swivels at each end allowing the forestay to bend a little as it sags off in a breeze.

There should be scope to extend it at either or each end, the flat plate idea seems to be in keeping with some Plastimo systems I have seen about.
 
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Years ago I under measured for a forestay and when it arrived rather than ordering a new one I Tig welded a 35cm long toggle.I used 10mm square 316 stainless.It's almost unnoticeable from deck level and has been in place for thousands of miles.
 
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Because that type of system has a swivel at the top end of the foil/forestay I would be very wary about using a rigging wire strop at the top. If the swivel gets sticky or jams then either furling or unfurling will be trying to unlay the wire. I'd go with a rigging screw at the bottom (as you have the thread for it) and the long toggle (as described by 30boat) at the top.
 
Thanks for all the comments and pictures. alahol2, I take your point, the upper swivel is already clamped to the wire. have added pictures of top and bottom of the unit.
 
Ardenfour said:
I have been offered a roller reefing system to replace my hanked-on system. My existing forestay measures 11.1m pin to pin, but the roller system with forestay measures 10.7m, so 400mm shorter. How feasible is it to increase this with, say, a length of chain or a wire strop? The roller forestay is 8mm compared to my 6mm, has a swaged eye at the top and a StaLok rigging screw at the bottom.
Click to expand...

I have fitted a stainless plate below my forestay as shown in the picture in order to raise the furling drum for easier deployment of the anchor. works very well. Don't see why you can't do a similar thing but just be aware of where the tack will end up and make sure the sheet lead is good across the range that genoa is used from fully out to heavily reefed. If necessary I don't see why you couldn't have one top and one bottom.

Yoda
20150414_180042.jpg
 
GHA said:
If the new system has a stalock at the bottom you could bite the bullet and buy a new bit of 8mm with an eye one end and redo the stalock yourself at the right length.
Click to expand...

I fitted a new forestry with a stalactites when fitting a sea spar furler. It was an easy task and the result a new forestry. I am going to sequentially replace all shrouds moving forward.
 
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