One broken wire on forestay

[roril]

I upsized the forestay on my 1988 MacGregor 26D about 2-3 years ago. After returning from San Diego Bay I noticed that one wire had broke at the top near the fittings.

Question: Being that I upsized the forestay, can I drive on and not worry about this broken wire?

[mastreb]

Do you mean that one strand of your forestay has broken? If so, I think you're fine but should replace it at your earliest opportunity. If you're saying some other wire has broken besides a strand of the forestay, I can't offer an opinion.

[Russ]

What caused the one wire to fail? Fatigue? Might not the remaining wires be ready to fail soon? I'd sleep better with a new forestay. They are cheaper than a broken mast.

[roril]

And there is the answer I was looking for. My biggest fear is the mast coming down. It is at the top near where the furler rests and I think the additional bending of the stay at the top of the furler when I was working on it might have worked like bending a wire back and forth to break it.

I will call for a new forestay tomorrow from Rigging Only. They did my last one.

[Sumner]

Do you have a toggle at both ends of the forestay now that you have a furler? Also how much tension do you now have on the forestay? With the rotating mast now and the furler I'd be sure to have the toggles. Rigging only has them and could adjust the forestay length if needed. Just make sure you can still fit the furler and hoist the sail completely,

Sum

===================================
Our MacGregor 26-S

Our Endeavour 37

Our Trips to Utah, Idaho, Canada, Florida

Mac-Venture Links

[dreamer]

Funny this came up. Had the boat in the water for the weekend and as went on deck to detach the mast from the bow pulpit I noticed one broken wire at the base of the forestay (hank-on jib). Didn't notice it when I had my first sail of the season a couple of weeks ago. I had my 10 year old son with me this weekend so I didn't want to chance it. We motored instead. I'll be ordering one from BWY since I've been wanting to also get their quick release engine bar.

[roril]

Hey Sum,

I ordered a new 5/32nds forestay from RiggingOnly this morning. They still had all my info from the last one (2008) but I still gave them the length just for drill. It will be here in two days. Puts my mind at ease!

The forestay is attached to a "D" ring that goes through the top hound just like the ones on the "M" hound. At the bottom I have a turnbuckle, toggle, spacer, toggle and lever. I can not check the tention on the forestay with the Loos gage but when I close the lever it feels about the same as before the RM was installed. I have the outers at 21+- and the inners at 17+-. The mast turns with no drag on the little thrust bearing and I did not see any real slop in the lee wires under heavy wind. I replaced all of the turnbuckles for the side stays this last month.

With the RM you can put the wind on one o'clock and she likes it. Unless I am trying to catch/race someone, I will run with just the main. When I roll out the jib we haul butt!

Thanks for the comments.

[Sumner]

Hey Sum,

I ordered a new 5/32nds forestay from RiggingOnly this morning. They still had all my info from the last one (2008) but I still gave them the length just for drill. It will be here in two days. Puts my mind at ease!

The forestay is attached to a "D" ring that goes through the top hound just like the ones on the "M" hound. At the bottom I have a turnbuckle, toggle, spacer, toggle and lever. I can not check the tention on the forestay with the Loos gage but when I close the lever it feels about the same as before the RM was installed. I have the outers at 21+- and the inners at 17+-. The mast turns with no drag on the little thrust bearing and I did not see any real slop in the lee wires under heavy wind. I replaced all of the turnbuckles for the side stays this last month.

With the RM you can put the wind on one o'clock and she likes it. Unless I am trying to catch/race someone, I will run with just the main. When I roll out the jib we haul butt!

Thanks for the comments.

I'm curious about a couple things. For one why not run a toggle at the top also since that is where the break was. Can you not run a toggle at the top with the M setup? Also I'm wondering why you can't check the forestay tension? I did mine before i put the roller furler foil on the stay. Then marked where everything was turned to and installed the foil and with the Johnson lever it shouldn't change much since you don't mess with the turnbuckle.

Also on an S or D the tension on the forestay is effected by the tension on the shrouds. Is it different on an M? I have my shrouds around 300 lb. and the forestay around 350 if I remember right (also have a 5/32nd). The 21 and 17 lbs seems really light. Again is this a function of the rotating mast on the M?

If anyone is interested here is the link to the loose gauge manual....

http://www.theannemarie.com/Loos-Gauge-manual.pdf

...and it has some tables on tension and such,

Sum

===================================
Our MacGregor 26-S

Our Endeavour 37

Our Trips to Utah, Idaho, Canada, Florida

Mac-Venture Links

[DaveB]

Sumner,
I agree with toggle at top of headstay. CDI requires this. Most failure acures on the Mac. top headstay.(lack of toggle).
Even upgradeing to 5/32 it still requires this. There is a lot of movement sideways and can stress the swag fitting to break a strand or two or crack the swage fitting.
Dave

[quote="Sumner"][quote="roril"]Hey Sum,
Can you not run a toggle at the top with the M setup? Also I'm wondering why you can't check the forestay tension?

[roril]

Ok, I need a picture of how it should be.

I have the eye at the top going through a D ring http://www.macgregor26.com/instruction_ ... CTIONS.pdf page 5.
The top shrouds are on either side of the forestay. The D ring goes through the hound. So do I put a toggle through the forestay eye and attach it to the D ring?

I have a different Loos Gage than Sumner. I could leave the pvc furler off, tune the rigging and then add the furler. The shrouds twang pretty good the way I have them set now. The back stay is kept real loose for the RM to work.

From the M manual: "When properly tuned, all of the mast support wires should be
quite snug."

It would seem that everyone has a different idea of how tight the shrouds should be.

Good info in this thread.

[Sumner]

Ok, I need a picture of how it should be.

I have the eye at the top going through a D ring http://www.macgregor26.com/instruction_ ... CTIONS.pdf page 5.
The top shrouds are on either side of the forestay. The D ring goes through the hound. So do I put a toggle through the forestay eye and attach it to the D ring?

I have a different Loos Gage than Sumner. I could leave the pvc furler off, tune the rigging and then add the furler. The shrouds twang pretty good the way I have them set now. The back stay is kept real loose for the RM to work.

From the M manual: "When properly tuned, all of the mast support wires should be
quite snug."

It would seem that everyone has a different idea of how tight the shrouds should be.

Good info in this thread.

I have ....



... the above at the top. Looks like you could use the same between the D and the thimble on the forestay. Rigging Only has them and I got mine from them.

I have this...



...at the very bottom...



I think tuning the forestay without the furler would be a good starting point. If you only have the low numbers you quoted on the shrouds I'll bet you also have a very low number on the forestay. Before I got the gauge a guy told me to set the tension where I could pull the shrouds towards me, center of boat, about 1 1/2 inches and that was better than what I had, but still a little looser than now. Of course we all pull differently so don't know what to tell you. Use the gauge as a starting point.

One think I like is going forward I can hang on to the shrouds and they don't move much. More here...

http://purplesagetradingpost.com/sumner ... ng-24.html

Sum

===================================
Our MacGregor 26-S

Our Endeavour 37

Our Trips to Utah, Idaho, Canada, Florida

Mac-Venture Links

[roril]

Thanks Sum!

I have room for adjustment with the turn buckles so I will see how it works. The stay should be here today.
Thanks for the photos.

Bob