MacGregorSailors.com

Frank C.

Yes I do have 2 forestays with cdi ff2 furlers on them

Eric

Go to the home page click on Sailing links on the left side. When that page comes up scroll down to Personal Mac Pages click on #1 Virtual Home Port of ' Mon Dieu' click on rig you'll see pic's of his uppermast showing his second forestay attachment point he also added another set of shrouds looks like they only go down to the spreaders the other pic shows his lower attachment point for the second forestay, click on deck and you'll see another pic of his second attachment point onto his small but nice "folding" bowsprit with attaching anchor & roller with wooden deck real nice mod .

As my mac19 is a masthead rig I added my second mast hound to the 3/4 point of the mast with another set of spreaders "2FT long" each & a full set of third shroulds. As my 4ft bowsprit raises approx 5" above the bow deck at the 3ft point where I moved my genny forestay out to with the addition of a quick release lever under the furler drum I was able to use the original forestay so I only had to make a second forestay.

Anyway thought you'd like that 'Mon Dieu' mod really well thought out for 26x or 26m & would be easy to make. I have had alot of requests asking about my bowsprit but it really would have to be redesigned "the bow deck attachment point" to fit the 26x /26m because of the center bow locker which would really be not that hard to do.

Merry Xmas & Happy New Year to Everyone & Family

To you southerners May Swift Seas keep the Old Sea Dogs at Bay and Happy Sailing

Another idea would be to use a working jib on the furler and get the 350 sq ft assymetrical spinnaker with a sock. Since you can use the spin to sail as high as a beam reach, possibly a close reach, and you can reef the spin with the sock, you may not need the genny. The amount of work associated with the spinnaker is probably equal to dealing with a hanked-on sail. I suppose it depends where you sail. In my case, less sail area is used more frequently than more sail area, so the RF jib + spinn w/ sock is a great solution without need for a genoa.

Leon

I believe what you all are describing is typically called a "Solent Stay". Searching the web using that term will turn up a lot of links, including various types of hardware for putting it together.

- Andy

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Guys, I'm resurrecting this old thread, since I found it looking for a specific idea. I'm going to change my hank-on jib to a furler. In planning on that, I thought: what about having a "back-up" forestay - not for a sail, but as backup in case something goes wrong, i.e., preventing the mast coming down in case the furler broke. The idea is to have a simple bowsprit, and have a forestay going from it to a point on the mask higher than where the current forestay attaches (since ours is a fractional rig). This arrangement will have the secondary feature that in raising the mask I can use it to easily attach the mast into place, and then worry about attaching the more-cumbersome headstay with the furler. I have not seen this arrangement anywhere, so I'm worried that I'm missing something. What is it that I'm missing? Why is it not done?

I have an extra block at the top of the mast for hoisting the spinnaker. When the spinnaker is not in place, the halyard is attached to the pulpit, for the reason you mentioned. For something like this, you don't need a bowsprit. Now if I were to install a second roller furler, that would be different. As things stand, the pulpit is strong enough if the foresray fails. The mast being in vertical position, it doesn't require a stronger attachment than that.
It would be as difficult to attach the second forestay first, to tension it properly, and leisurely attach the jib's furler, I think
I also have a genoa that I sometimes hoist, even without the hank-ons: one point of attachment up (the line that I use for the spin) the lower one to the pulpit, then it flies freely. The shape is not ideal, but then again, I don't use it very often. The 100% roller furler and the main work fine for me for 90% of the time.

It is done, it's just a matter of wording except most tie off to the pulpit and don't add a bowsprit. We do the same as March, only sadly no spin.

I have a furler, my boat has a block and a jib halyard. With the furler I don't use the halyard for sails so we use it to aid in mast raising and tie it off to the pulpit as a backup to the forestay.

Important When you tie a halyard to the pulpit be careful not to put too much tension on it. It is a safety and a backup, but if it's overtensioned it will reduce the tension on your forestay. Your fractional rig is designed to be held in tension with the stays attached where they are, putting more tension higher up may not be a good idea. Secondly if you are running a furler and there isn't enough tension your luff extrusion will bend easily and you will lose sail shape.

My method: when raising the mast(2 people minimum, no MRS )first I disconnect the backstay I attach one end of the jib halyard to the pulpit and pass the other end to a helper on the ground beside the trailer. The ground crew passes the line behind their back and controls with both hands. As I begin to lift(on the cabin top) they begin to walk backwards. After 10 degrees or so the only thing I need to do is keep balance left and right(no babystays ). Once the mast is fully upright the ground crew can hold it there with little effort. I position the furler and ready the pin, with the backstay undone I ask the ground crew for extra tension and pop in the pin. Now the mast is up and furler pinned. The ground crew hands me the halyard and I tie it off to the bowsprit. I've noticed that there is a lot of leverage and I can easily take the tension off the furler. That is counter productive so I am mindful when I tie it off and try to find the balance where the halyard is snug but won't interfere with my rig tuning.

I hope this helps,

Willy

Thank you guys, this is exactly what I was looking for.

+1 on second forestay to pulpit, in the end, I added another mast tang to keep away from furler.

also tied a couple of small loops in it , one to run a short bungee to pulpit keep under tension so wont wrap furler. and allow back stay adjustment, and other to clip the mast raisng pole to.