Tightening my forstay Plastion 609. (Its a little urgent)

[mikenfi]

Hi all,

So I need some help again. I'm starting to understand the true meaning of Boat "Break Out Another Thousand".

We've been on the hard for a couple of months and experienced 60 knot winds. We have now noticed movement in the mast and would like to tighten the stay's today. I have a plastimo 609 fitted in 1990. I have owned the boat a year and have not experienced any problems with the 609.

I will try to add photo's. The turnbuckle/bottle screw is between 2 plates and appears to disapear into the bottom drum.

With regards to turning the bottle screw. I think it is possible to turn it between the plates but I would like to take purchase of the spanner hold above the buckle, which seems to be within the bottom drum. I want to ensure both ends of the buckle are spinning at the same time. Is it possible to tighten the forstay without moving the 609 bottom drum?

Thanks help greatly appreciated.

 

[jimmyk]

the two side plates are secured to the drum with 4 bolts with an allen key head i think. Remove these bolts and lift up the drum. Hopefully the foil will not go right to the top of the forestay and by lifting the drum you should be able to get at the bottle screw a bit easier

 

[anthemsailing]

I ran a rigging business for some years, and found that the need to access the forestay rigging screw to achieve greater forestay tension was one of the most common misconceptions I encountered.

Forestay length directly affects mast rake. If your boat doesn't have excessive weather helm, leave the forestay length alone as it's about right. You should be able to acheive the extra tension you need by tightening the backstay, assuming there is sufficient travel on the backstay rigging screw.

If you do need to shorten the forestay, jimmyk's method above is correct on principle, and may work if, as he quite rightly says, you have enough exposed forestay above the foil for it to slide up and provide sufficient clearance. Failing this, remove the screws or rivets holding the top of the drum onto the bottom of the foil, then slide the foil up sufficiently to get hold of the bottom of the black plastic bearing strip which retains the forestay in the foil, slide this out downwards (it is quite flexible). Then remove the screw holding the bottom foil at the first joining section (which will be at about eye level above the deck) you will now be able to remove the foil section sideways, without needing to disconnect the forestay wire - as Plastimo foils are 'horseshoe' shaped in cross section, and only retained on the forestay wire by the black plastic strip. This will then give you ~6' of clearance to slide the drum up and access the rigging screw, by disconnecting the lower link plates as jimmyk describes. Assembly is the reverse of the above.

 

[VicS]

Hi all,

So I need some help again.

. I have a plastimo 609 fitted in 1990. .

I will try to add photo's. The turnbuckle/bottle screw is between 2 plates and appears to disapear into the bottom drum.

As anthemsailing suggests the bottle screw should not be adjusted unless it is necessary to alter the mast rake. The forestay tension being adjusted by using the backstay adjuster(s)

However it would be useful to post a picture or two of the way in which the forestay bottle screw and Plastimo side plates have been assembled. I have noticed a variety of ways this has been done ... very few as Plastimo intended although what you describe sounds correct.

Personally if any adjustment of the forestay bottle screw is necessary I would feel inclined to support the mast with a halyard down to the foredeck, disconnect the side plates from the stem head, (and the bottle screw from the sideplate if separately attached). Then slide the complete foil up the stay to access the top of the bottle screw, make the necessary adjustment before reconnecting it all again.

 

[Javelin]

Fully agree with anthemsailing.
Might be helpful to know what boat / rig you have to help,
ie is it fractional or masthead, single or double spreaders, are they angled aft or straight, twin or single lowers, babystay etc.
or a photo would do the trick.