mainstay mayday

[sarabande]

well, I never knew that a sloop-rigged yacht had a mainstay.

http://www.pbo.co.uk/news/537479/snapped-mainstay-prompts-southsea-yacht-mayday

 

[prv]

I suppose that's the logical name for it, though of course we all call it a forestay. On a larger vessel, the mainstay goes forwards from the head of the main lower mast. So does the forestay on a yacht, if we regard the whole mast as the lower, and a single mast is surely the mainmast, so according to standard nomenclature that makes it the mainstay.

Even though nobody calls it that.

Alternatively, some people seem to regard the upper part of a marconi mast as the topmast, even though it's the same spar - 50s and 60s books sometimes talk about "the topmast, above the hounds". In which case a masthead forestay could be a main-topmast-stay, which sounds more natural to me because the ships I sailed on had a main-topmast-staysail (and a fore-topmast staysail) but no sails on the mainstay and forestay so we rarely mentioned those.

Of course nobody calls it that either.

I wonder where whoever wrote the article got the term from?

Pete

 

[oldbilbo]

Of course nobody calls it that either.....I wonder where whoever wrote the article got the term from?

I'm wondering - could it possibly be that much-loved nautical writer TB....?

 

[lw395]

I would have thought the 'main stay' would be american for 'main shroud' i.e a cap shroud on a fractional rig?
My guess is it's an RNLI press release?

 

[VicS]

I'm wondering - could it possibly be that much-loved nautical writer TB....?

No News and Web Editor Laura Hodgetts

 

[HenryEDM]

I was bemused by this too. It's not the first time an article on YBWs front page seems to have been written by someone with limited knowledge of boats.

 

[prv]

I was bemused by this too. It's not the first time an article on YBWs front page seems to have been written by someone with limited knowledge of boats.

There was a Laura who came on the Scuttlebutt Poole thing a year or two ago - I didn't know her surname and I'm rubbish at remembering faces so I don't know if it's the same person. But that Laura hadn't done any sailing before starting work at IPC. She'd studied journalism and so applied for a job on a magazine - what the magazine was actually about was very much a secondary consideration. Although she did say she'd enjoyed the couple of daysails she'd done since joining and was looking forward to doing more...

Pete

 

[William_H]

I can't help feeling the folks in this incident were a bit quick to call for help. A few years back I had a clevis pin fall out of the bottom of my forestay while beating to windward in a race. The jib luff andd halyard were haolding up the mast.I did notice the rig went a bit slack. I have a high field lever in the forestay and so was bale to release the highfield lever pop a screw driver in to place and retension the forestay in minutes without losing any time or place in the (short) race.
However I have suffered a few failures of mast and had the rig around my ears. No problem Just drop the anchor. Haul the wreckage on board and motor home.
Obviously in this incident the boat was a lot bigger than mine and apparently the jib parted or was unable to back up the forestay. I wonder why the mast did not come down immediately. Perhaps it had a baby/inner forestay. In any case with main down and jib not loading the forestay/mast the whole rig was still upright and so no problem to motor home. What has happened to self sufficiency? olewill

PS journalism seems to become more and nore a trade unto itself more detatched from truth reality and fairness and more focussed on sensationalism and promoting the journalist themselves. I refer particularly to free lance "documentary" makers for television.

 

[mudkipper]

Seems to have become a forestay now....

 

[Simonpk]

Slight drift, but I didn't realise a Hurley 20 was 25ft.

http://www.ybw.com/news/sailing/537470/sailor-believed-to-be-missing-after-yacht-washed-ashore

 

[[70521]]

Slight drift, but I didn't realise a Hurley 20 was 25ft.

http://www.ybw.com/news/sailing/537470/sailor-believed-to-be-missing-after-yacht-washed-ashore

Is there a helicopter SAR base at Lyme Regis?

 

[MASH]

Seems incredible that PBO is so completely confused by the meanings and purposes of MAYDAY and PAN PAN. The headline uses the word MAYDAY, the text says they made a PAN call and then bangs on about the "emergency". That's hardly worthy of the Daily Wail, let alone a specialised yachting publication.

 

[VicS]

There was a Laura who came on the Scuttlebutt Poole thing a year or two ago - I didn't know her surname and I'm rubbish at remembering faces so I don't know if it's the same person. But that Laura hadn't done any sailing before starting work at IPC. She'd studied journalism and so applied for a job on a magazine - what the magazine was actually about was very much a secondary consideration. Although she did say she'd enjoyed the couple of daysails she'd done since joining and was looking forward to doing more...

Pete

From "meet the team" on the PBO website ( also where the picture comes from)

Laura Hodgetts - News & Web Editor
Prior to joining Time Inc. (UK) Ltd in December 2012, Laura worked for the Dorset Echo in Weymouth as the Olympic sailing reporter. When Laura's not looking for news stories and working on the website, product testing for New Gear and gathering Cruising Notes , she likes to set her sights on office cleaning and organising fun group tests. Laura loves to help out on the PBO Project Boat but can be accident prone, dipping her hair in paint and knocking over full paint cans.

Read more at http://www.pbo.co.uk/magazine/meet-the-team#UWOuZIc2mXfpdVfm.99