Stem head forestay attachment issue

[Overandunder]

Unfortunately, I have first hand experience of this fitting as I have a SO 29.2. When I bought it 4 years ago I had new rigging fitted as the mast was down. The rigger tensioned (quite hard) the rig and left the forestay in the forward hole as it always had been.
At the end of that year the yard owner noticed my forestay/ anchor roller fitting was lifting off the deck.
If you look at the photos the forward hole is well forward of the 3 mounting bolts so the forestay tension is trying to lever the fitting off the deck which is what happened in my case.
Anyway an amount of glassfibre work and a new fitting were done and the forestay is now in the aft hole.
The fitting cost about £1300 from Jeanneau!
Apparently the dealer has sold a number of these fittings.View attachment 183124

Wow - thanks for the tip, that's a worrying picture. Presumably Jeanneau didn't think fixings along the forward edge of the bow (GRP stem) were needed ?? I will check the deck join at the bow tomorrow for any cracking / signs of movement.

 

[Overandunder]

It seems to me on studying the photos that the aluminium at the top of the hole has extruded to each side of the fitting. This suggests the mechanism not to be wear, but at least to some extent is plastic deformation. The result will be some work hardening, i.e. local strengthening, a far less worrying situation. As has been pointed out there is a lot of metal remaining. I would not be too worried at the moment.

I am a little concerned about the indentation on the top of the fitting. If this is caused by hard contact with the toggle or the bottle screw above it may be indicative of a loss in articulation that might lead to fatigue of the forestay or bottle screw. Check that no contact exists and if necessary lengthen the toggle.

Those with long memories will recall that the failed forestays on the British Steel round the world yachts were caused by an almost identical situation.

I can appreciate your comment re the damage along the top edge of the alloy. Checking the existing toggle / stay layout I can't see how this would have been caused as there is plenty of clearance. I suspect it may possibly have occurred with an earlier forestay setup ?

 

[MontyMariner]

tricky to bend - one end would need to remain parallel

Hammer a wedge down the U (steel rod or could be the shaft end of a drill bit) of the diameter you require to give you a V shape, leave the rod in place then squeeze the end of the V in a vice until the sides are parallel.
Some heat could be applied if necessary.

 

[Overandunder]

Just thought I would post the result. I spoke to a Rigger about this and his reply was pretty quick - 'just enlarge the holes in the toggle and casting to 12mm and fit a bigger clevis...'. Inspecting the area under the bow roller revealed no signs of strain or previous repair. Happy with the result - but it's one to keep an eye on definitely.

Thanks again for all the comments and suggestions.