Reinforcing deck fitting for a detachable stay ?

[stav]

Hi, when fitting new standard rigging to the masts on my westerly Conway I added a detachable stay for setting a light weight Genoa and a storm jib. With the intention of fitting a secondhand roller reefing system I have purchased…… I was going to add a 10mm u bolt and then take a short wire and turnbuckle to the stem of the boat in the chain locker. But how to terminate? To another u bolt such that two bolt heads and a narrow backing plate can be seen on the stem or glass in a piece of plywood that can have a ‘chain plate added to take the turnbuckle. Wondering thoughts on this? Heavy boat? Storm job flogging etc…. Also thinking if I don’t fit the roller reefer could have a larger sail on the outer stay and smaller sail on the inner stay and swap as necessary. Should already has flexibility with the ketch rig?? Useful thoughts/experience please, thank you.

 

[Tranona]

Glassing in a mini bulkhead or a knee with a stainless chain plate is probably the way to go.

As to two headsail arrangements, I have just done this on my GH31. Probably a bit closer together than yours because the inner is on the original stem and the outer is on the end of a short bowsprit. You don't say where you are attaching the upper end of your inner, but I expect your mast is a similar Proctor to mine and the advice from Selden was 30cm down was fine, any lower and you might want to consider runners if you are going to use it for a big sail. Not the sort of complication you want to add to an already "busy" rig. I had a new 100% high clew sail made for the inner and use a large genoa that came with the boat on the outer. No intention of swapping them as the current set up gives options from light offwind to two headsail offwind, good windward with just the inner which will be good down to a size suitable for any weather I am likely to encounter. If you do want the 2 sails interchangeable check that the luff tape sizes are the same - mine are not.

 

[andsarkit]

I used a double pad eye on the deck as they fold flat when not in use and have one hoop for the stay and the second for the sail tack. Fit an intermediate stainless plate under the deck to match your chosen fitting below.

 

[stav]

Thanks for the replies , Tranona I was thinking of not using the roller reefer and just hanking on to the two stays different sized genoa/jib as appropriate for the passage. Will look up one of those andsarkit. Thanks.

 

[Supertramp]

You might try the Westerly Owners Club as someone must have already added an inner forestay to a Conway.

I have used a Solent stay with hank on sails for several years and it is very useful but changing headsails in F5-6 is hard work (at least it is singlehanded at my age!). I just converted it to roller furling similar to Tranona which makes it impossible to set my hank on storm jib but allows me to set a well furled jib instead without having to mess with setting up the stay, halyards, hanks and sheets. My outer furler carries a genoa which is twice the size of my (now furling) Solent jib. Additional benefit is twin headsails downwind. Downside is tacking with the genoa means furling.

 

[Tranona]

Thanks for the replies , Tranona I was thinking of not using the roller reefer and just hanking on to the two stays different sized genoa/jib as appropriate for the passage. Will look up one of those andsarkit. Thanks.

Do you really need a storm jib? with a boat like yours with small individual sail areas suspect you will be better doing what Supertramp and I have done. A flatter cut working jib on the inner will do fine for heavy weather. this was the recommendation from the sailmaker when e were making the change. Equally do you really want to go back to hank on sails?

On the question of locating your inner stay, is there not a bulkhead at the anchor locker you can use to take the load to the hull? Even if it is not in exactly the right place you can have a fabricated L shaped knee in stainless to transfer the load from the termination on deck to the bulkhead.

 

[mogmog2]

There isn't much on this in WOA land...

I had exactly that dilemma. I concluded that a neatish way would be to use mushroom headed socket screws (or possibly cheese headed slots) from the outside into a load-rated linear padeye that fitted in the bow 'valley'. Then either a turnbuckle and strop or dyneema lashing.

In the end I found I could fit it on the bow fitting and it just cleared the furling drum, but that's probably quite boat specific.

Have you been on Joe Cooper Sailing website? He's an advocate of Solent stays and has a good few useful pages and photos on attachment, detachment and tensioning. This is his pic, but broadly what I did on our Centaur and will repeat on our Fulmar in due course. There's info on below deck bracing too, I couldn't find a pic though. He often uses a dyneema lashing - which also saves weight right in the bow.
The other pic is from (Cruisers Forum?) of something like an albin Vega IIRC.