Long stainless steel plates with holes used to make forestays adjustable

[gmatkin]

I'm trying to set up our forestay and furler the same way as many other boats we see, but not knowing what the parts concerned are called is not helping...

Perhaps someone can please help. Looking around, I notice that on many sailing boats, two elongated stainless steel plates with holes along their length are often used to enable the forestay/rake of the mast to be adjusted, and to set the barrel of the furler a little above deck.

The plates look just like a piece of Meccano, but chunkier. Does anyone know their proper name and where I can find a supplier with a good selection please? I'm looking for lengths in the 30-50cm range, as the forestay chain plate is some way below deck.

Thanks, Gavin

 

[William_H]

This might be the kind of plate you are looking for. Ronstan Perforated Strip 8.1mm, $37.95 | Whitworths Marine Sorry it is an Oz supplier but surely available in UK. However they are really only for dinghies. I would look for stainless steel plate and drill it to suit. 2 plates with bolts and lock nuts I would suggest. Of a dimension suitable for the size of the boat. In my case I got ss plate and drilled to make a high field lever which makes mast lowering really easy. Perhaps not a priority for you.
Or perhaps you should just replace the forestay with a longer wire. ol'will

 

[VicS]

What you have probably seen are the coupling plates used on Plastimo furlers
They come in two lengths 5 hole and 11 hole for the smaller versions The longer ones allow the rigging screw to be retained together with the original forestay.

I' m sure Plastimo are not the only ones to use them but offhand cannot name any others.
Google for perforated stainless steel flat bar or strip.

 

[vyv_cox]

Mine came with my Facnor furling gear.

 

[LadyInBed]

Google for perforated stainless steel flat bar

? https://www.amazon.co.uk/sourcing-3...ocphy=1006664&hvtargid=pla-475742263564&psc=1

 

[gmatkin]

? https://www.amazon.co.uk/sourcing-3...ocphy=1006664&hvtargid=pla-475742263564&psc=1

Interesting. 'Stainless steel straight flat brackets' sounds like a good search term.

Would they be made from an SS alloy suitable for the marine environment, I wonder, and could countersunk holes be a problem? I'm not an engineer, but 4mm feels like a healthy thickness.

Gavin

 

[gmatkin]

Mine came with my Facnor furling gear.

Our furler came with the boat, and I haven't yet seen the same brand on another boat or on sale anywhere from a current supplier. It's just old and a bit unusual.

The forestay on our Hunter is in the anchor locker below deck level. Currently the furler and the forestay are attached by a substantial stainless tube, squashed at the forestay chainplate end to take a pin. Whatever is inside can't be seen.

Remove the pin, say to detach the stay in order to adjust anything, and the forestay unhooks and you lose the forestay /somewhere/ up in the furler. It can only go as far as the furler, but since the screws in the furler are Loctited into place and in particular you can't get to the screw heads inside the tube, it's all a bit challenging with the mast up and not exactly easy with it down. For covid and work reasons I'd already been magnificently slow to get the boat ready this season, but now I think I'm properly frustrated and have come to despise that bloody tube!

Gavin

 

[LadyInBed]

It's just old and a bit unusual.

Not unlike a lot of the contributors here ?

 

[penfold]

Post a picture, someone's bound to be able to ID the make.

 

[Alex_Blackwood]

I'm trying to set up our forestay and furler the same way as many other boats we see, but not knowing what the parts concerned are called is not helping...

Perhaps someone can please help. Looking around, I notice that on many sailing boats, two elongated stainless steel plates with holes along their length are often used to enable the forestay/rake of the mast to be adjusted, and to set the barrel of the furler a little above deck.

The plates look just like a piece of Meccano, but chunkier. Does anyone know their proper name and where I can find a supplier with a good selection please? I'm looking for lengths in the 30-50cm range, as the forestay chain plate is some way below deck.

Thanks, Gavin

Link Plates for Furlers Try a google search for "Furler adjusting plates"

 

[pandos]

I paid 45quid for a 5m length of 5mm by 50mm 316 SS and made my own... Battery drill and angle grinder...took an hour.

 

[Kelpie]

One of the online fabricators would easily do this for you if you provide the dimensions. You'll want to use 316L stock.

I had to do this a few years back and it cost under £20 from memory.

 

[pandos]

I should add that getting the exact length required was not so straight forward...changing the length of the backstay had a disproportionate effect on the length of the forestay required...

Bit of trial and error was involved probably have been better if I had made a drawing and used a calculator....

 

[gmatkin]

Post a picture, someone's bound to be able to ID the make.

That's one I can answer: it's a Nemo Wonderfurler. It probably should be in a museum somewhere!

But I imagine the SS tube was a custom job someone made, specially for particular anchor locker, forestay chainplate arrangement that the Hunter Delta has.

Gavin

 

[Daydream believer]

At that length one might start to look at a bottle screw.

 

[gmatkin]

At that length one might start to look at a bottle screw.

Thanks! It would be a handy answer, and maybe one for the future. But the existing forestay reaches to within a few inches of the forestay chain plate.

Gavin

 

[Daydream believer]

Thanks! It would be a handy answer, and maybe one for the future. But the existing forestay reaches to within a few inches of the forestay chain plate.

Gavin

But you said---- "I'm looking for lengths in the 30-50cm range, ---(That is 12-14 inches) So why do you need them that long if the forestay is within a few inches of the chain plate