Reinforce mast with an extra forestay (avoiding roller jib)?

[JasonDW]

Hi folks,

After having spent the past few weekends raising/lowering the mast of my 2005 26M (and figuring out other stuff on the boat), I am less than impressed with the itty bitty pin (stainless steel 3/16 inch) that holds the roller furling jib to the bow of the boat, but even more worried about that the same single pin is holding up the mast/rigging/boom/sails/everything !! Next weekend will be the (re)inaugural launch of our "new-to-us" vessel and I want to make sure all goes as planned with no major catastrophes.

Does anyone have the same worries?

I am thinking of at least tieing an extra rope from the top of the mast (right near the top, above the head of the roller furling connection), down ahead of (or over, if you will) the roller furling jib to connect somewhere like around the pulpit or perhaps to the side of the anchor roller. Am I being paranoid? Has anyone ever experienced this where that pin gives out and the mast came down in a hurry?

I suppose I could capture the fore edge of the mast step in that connector piece, using the bolt holes of the mast raising system (the holes are indeed a bit far fwd, but I know I could make something work). I am thinking the torsion/leverage/tension at that part of the boat would likely be enough to cause alot of damage if I attempted this (and the mast ever did come down), but I may even end up doing both mods??

Any suggestions/advice would be appreciated.

JasonDW.

[Big Poppa]

I had a pin come loose but my mast didn't fall because the line I have for a sleeve to cover the jib held it up. I have added a second cable further up the mast and attached to the bow pulpit. Having taken out my mast in a tree while lanching 2 years ago I may be a bit paranoid. There is plenty of room for the furier to do its thing and it is not an eye sore.

[Hamin' X]

Do you have information that leads to this concern? I have never heard of a Mac dismasting occurring due to failure of this pin.

~Rich

[Rick Westlake]

... I am less than impressed with the itty bitty pin (stainless steel 3/16 inch) that holds the roller furling jib to the bow of the boat, but even more worried about that the same single pin is holding up the mast/rigging/boom/sails/everything !! ... Does anyone have the same worries? ... Am I being paranoid? Has anyone ever experienced this where that pin gives out and the mast came down in a hurry?

Not going to say it's impossible, but that "itty bitty pin" is seriously strong. However, I've been using a top-quality shackle instead of a clevis pin and cotter at the forestay tang, as I believe it would be harder to lose. I also have a use for the "D" of the shackle ...

Rather than use the jib halyard for my spinnaker, I mounted another block at the top of my mast and use a separate halyard for the chute. I run its tack-line through a block on a bolt through the mast-support ears on the bow pulpit, then down through the forestay shackle and back to my winch and cam-cleat. When I'm not flying the spinnaker, I tie off its halyard through the block, and cleat it down snug on the mast.

Belt and suspenders, maybe; but I plan to try running under jib-and-spinnaker one of these lazy, light-winded Chesapeake summer days as well - and I use the jib halyard as a topping lift for my whisker-pole, when I do fly the chute.

[puggsy]

What I have done to solve that very obvious problem is to run a short bot loose extra wire from the bow fitting to the underside of the furler drum...via oversize snap on clips rather than shackles...on and off easy...So if that pin does let go, the mast can only go back as far as the slack on the wire will allow...
This does not save the mast if the break is in the furler drum or on any point from there to the top hound...I agree with your suggestion. An inner forestay would overcome the whole pproblem.
With an inner forestay, the jib sheets and jib have to pass around it when tacking. Wear on the sail is prevented by covering the whole length of the inner forestay with one inch PVC [ wastewater] pipe...
My recently sold VIVACITY had one [ I.F.] and all her shrouds were 50% thicker than the 's.
It does remove a lot of worry.

[Kelly Hanson East]

I dont think the pin has failed, but there have been a couple of demastings reported here when a quickpin has slipped out, or someone lost the ring-ding on a halyard or something.

Cleating off the furler line can give you some backup - and of course a couple of us have put on second forestays..

[Kelly Hanson East]

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[Kelly Hanson East]

....deleted triplicate post

[Duane Dunn, Allegro]

I've never heard of a pin failure, even when masts have struck objects it's always been some other part that fails first before the pin.

The danger is having the pin fall out due to improper installation, usually of the ring ding. That, and not having ring dings on the turnbuckle inside the furler drum (allowing it to unwind itself) or a collision have been the cause of all the dis-mastings I have heard of over the last 10 years.

We use an oversize pin and ring ding to make handling easier and hopefully insure that all is assembled correctly. I do prefer the full circle ring dings (more like a key ring type) to the ones that don't have much overlap. NEVER use a quickpin, that is just asking for trouble. Spend the extra 10 seconds and use one with a ring ding. Not only are they not as strong because they are hollow but they can be too easily pulled out by a sail or line.

My genoa has a UV strip on it so I don't have to mess with a sock. This means the jib halyard is not used for any purpose other than raising and lowering the mast. I always attach the jib halyard to the bow pulpit ahead of the furler once I have the mast up. This provides a backup should something let loose and I find that with the standard jib block location the line is far enough ahead of the furler that it doesn't interfere with it's operation. Of course now you are counting on the two sheet metal screws holding the jib halyard cleat on not to pull out (worry about this when raising the mast). This leads me to keep the halyard tail tide to the lower vang bail.

[ALX357]

Stirrup mounted on bolts of anchor hanger, at bow pulpit, for clipping sock halyard to. When the sock is off the furled Genoa, the halyard out of the way in front of the furler. There is a second hound a few inches above the furler's, to which the sock halyard sheeve is attached. This keeps the sock halyard line above and parallel to the furler, so to minimize the chance of it wrapping in the furler.
This line also is a balance back-up to the furler, to keep the mast balanced up in limited conditions. Of course it would not hold against any full pressure nor weight, but will keep it from just falling for gravity.

[Terry]

Hi folks,

After having spent the past few weekends raising/lowering the mast of my 2005 26M (and figuring out other stuff on the boat), I am less than impressed with the itty bitty pin (stainless steel 3/16 inch) that holds the roller furling jib to the bow of the boat, but even more worried about that the same single pin is holding up the mast/rigging/boom/sails/everything !! Next weekend will be the (re)inaugural launch of our "new-to-us" vessel and I want to make sure all goes as planned with no major catastrophes.

Does anyone have the same worries?
Any suggestions/advice would be appreciated.
JasonDW.

Funny, I always wondered why the factory only used that smaller 1/8 forestay and 1/4 turnbuckle to counter the tension of four 5/32 shrouds, it just didn't seem right, but it still worked fine enough. Well when I got a new Schaefer Snapfurler I had to upgrade to a 5/32 forestay to accomodate the furler foil, so rather than change just the wire I had a whole new 5/32 forestay made including a beefier 5/16 turnbuckle with a beefier cleavis pin that fit the foretang hole more snuggly. I now feel a lot more at ease about the security of a heavier duty forestay assembly, but I may go one further and put in a second forestay on a 3 ft bowsprit to use for a spinnaker and then I can go one more step and use my old whimpy forestay for a removeable/detacheable inner forestay to use for a hank-on storm jib and have three forestays! Not that I need three but a storm jib forestay seems like a good idea and the outer spinnaker forestay sounds like a good plan for spinnaker management.

[Matt19020]

This has been tested and so far all is good. Mast hound should be as hgh on the mast as possible and turnbuckle is on the port side of anchor roller. In this location there is no interference to the furling jib and the Mod was less then $100, including swagging tool from Duckworks.com This now gives me some piece of mind with a redundant forestay

[Hamin' X]

Just be aware, that you can no longer induce mast bend to flatten the mainsail, unless you loosen the extra forestay.

~Rich

[ALX357]

I have stared at this photo for 5 minutes and can't figure it out, what is the furler drum attached to, that is pulling it forward, and why ?
Evidently I am not reading the picture correctly, and it confused me greatly. There seems to be some shackle linkage that is attached to the bottom of the furler drum, but it appears to be slack, or at least not pulling in the same line as the furler and inner stay. 'Says the (visible) turnbuckle is attached to the side of the anchor roller, but where is the furler drum attached ? Has the chainplate been moved that far forward ? Is this just me that is having trouble with this photo ?

[JasonDW]

The pic is a bit odd indeed, but at least on my 2005 26M, there is a plate on the other side of the anchor roller that comes up from the nose/bow with 2 holes in it. I believe what is throwing you off is an extra safety chain coming from the bottom of the roller furler (and it is loose as you have noted. Maybe this is used to keep the roller there while you wrestle it down into the pin.

And thanks so much for the posts folks !! Just a fantastic variety of options to choose from (once again). Great ideas all around.

JasonDW.