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Of course there is a backup to the forestay, we tie off our spinnaker halyard to the pull pit, it keeps the halyard in an easy to get at place and backs up the forestay, of course this wont work if your flying the kite, but very little time sailing is under kite

sailboatmike wrote:Of course there is a backup to the forestay, we tie off our spinnaker halyard to the pull pit, it keeps the halyard in an easy to get at place and backs up the forestay, . . .

That's where I store my spin halyard, though I'm not worried about losing the forestay.

sailboatmike wrote:. . . of course this wont work if your flying the kite, but very little time sailing is under kite

But then, the spinnaker is pulling forward, or mostly forward, and it ties the halyard to the stem fitting or bowsprit. So it's better than nothing even with a spinnaker flying.

I too have a kite halyard on 'boat' that I clip to the bow pulpit when the mast is up and it's is more than adequate as a backup fore-stay in case of a failure but really, I have never ever even ONCE ever heard of a fore-stay failure on a MAC and only very very very rarely on any other boat. If anyone here has ever had a fore-stay failure on their MAC we all would love to know what happened.

The mac is just too light to really break the wires - if you were the jolly green giant and you grabbed most any sailboat by the mast and yanked on it you might break a mast stay but not on the MAC - the MAC is just too damn lite - if Green Giant grabbed the mast he would just pull the whole boat right up out of the water. The MAC is not really heavy enough to break the wires - something else would break first. (Probably bend a spreader or snap a mast before the wires would pop I assume).

It's the swedged nicopress collars that will crack open - that is where the failure would occur I think.

I guess with 4 forestays I do not have ur guy,s worries
Just Sayin Thats All

J

I would love to put my kite on a top-down furler in the near future---that would add the extra degree of safety as well. I don't use the asymmetrical yet as I usually am single-handing and don't have a furler or a snuffer. Maybe this summer?

Baha wrote:don't have a furler or a snuffer. Maybe this summer?

Wow I just learnt something new... I love the idea on this.....


They look inexpensive too..
http://www.westmarine.com/buy/atn--spin ... 63_002_509

Can I pull one of these over the Genoa too?

BOAT wrote: It's the swedged nicopress collars that will crack open - that is where the failure would occur I think.

Did you hear of any nicopress that opened in a mac? Normally you say a nicopress is nearly so strong than the cable so there are two of them
But by making new on my own I am thinking about putting 3 nicopresses just to make me feel save...

A 25 ft Chutescoop is about half the price.

http://www.chutescoop.com/order-chutescoop/

20 ft, which I have on mine, is too short. Just so you know.

Highlander wrote:I guess with 4 forestays I do not have ur guy,s worries
Just Sayin Thats All

J

Hey, don't you have like THREE fore stays?

kurz wrote:

BOAT wrote: It's the swedged nicopress collars that will crack open - that is where the failure would occur I think.

Did you hear of any nicopress that opened in a mac? Normally you say a nicopress is nearly so strong than the cable so there are two of them
But by making new on my own I am thinking about putting 3 nicopresses just to make me feel save...

It's not the fitting that normally fails it's that the fitting holds dirt and salts and low oxygen (when wetted or unable to dry, like inside the fitting) this can hide degradation of the cable combined with a pivot point for the cable to flex on (be it a small one) increase strain on the cable at the fitting. The rest of the cable can look new but hidden under the fitting there may be breakage occurring and no readily visible signs. Also nicropress fitting for the cable our boats use reduce the working load of the cable by as much as 60% through the fitting, while cable strength is only reduced by 20% on average. But like Boat says those loads are still well within the limits for our boats when they are in good condition.