Today I moved the boat from Marion to Bristol and during the trip (no sails were up) the bottom of the forestay cable broke right at the fitting. Guess all those years finally had its toll.
A question, can I just take the forestay and its broken piece to a rigger and have him make me a new one or should it be measured in place?
Also, how do I know what the correct tension is when I do replace it?
Have others experienced this type of failure? If the sails had been up (25 k of wind and very confused and large seas) could it have endangered the mast?
Hi, im certainly no expert when it comes to rigging but i dont believe the forestay breaking is any threat at all to the mast. Mine broke once punching into a decent sea and i didnt notice at first as i was down stairs, the most dangerous part of the whole thing was being on deck lashing it all down in a narly chop. I just took my old stay to a rigger and got him to make a new one the same. I could be wrong but i believe motoring along without the jib up wears the stay more than when its under tension from the sail being up. In regards to tension i would be interested in what others have to say.
Cheers Dale
Freeform
Just take the pieces to a rigger and have him remake it. And I agree that there was no danger to the mast as it doesn’t support it.
I typically tension the forestay so that there’s about 2-3" of deflection when I push on it. It’s not meant to be tight as it will bend the mast forward.
You’re talking about a forestay for a Camberspar jib, right? If so, I’d add one feature to the new one: have the rigger make it short enough so there’s room to add a toggle in each end. If your 38 is like my 32, the forestay can swivel fore and aft completely freely, but it has no freedom to swivel side to side. Our forestays are different from other boats (they are VERY LOOSE) so when in use, the jib pulls the forestay sideways a lot. If the forestay fittings cannot swivel sideways it creates a shear force on the wire right where the wire enters the fitting. A toggle will let the forestay fitting swivel in any direction. When the sideways load comes, the forestay fitting will swivel and line up with the wire so the force is straight down the fitting, all in tension, with no force trying to shear the wire off at the top of the fitting. It’s far less likely to break where it did.
I have had two forestays break on my 38 over twenty years. Seemed to have solved the problem by sliding a length of PVC over the turnbuckle to above the swage. This keeps it from bending at the swage and fatiguing it.
The answer to this, and most other Freedom questions is Paul Dennis. He supplied me with new sheaves. I also went up a size on the connector that holds the sheave and attaches the camberspar to the forestay (also his idea). This eliminated the problem.
The jib forestay on our 40/40 split and mostly broke off at the bottom fitting, apparently with the boat just sitting on the mooring. It might be original to the boat, i.e. around 28 yo, or perhaps previous owners had replaced it, I don’t know. It certainly is at least 10 years old. I had not noticed any deterioration while hanking the jib on/attaching the camberspar earlier this season or while raising the jib. On Paul’s advice I took it down and will use a rigger he recommended to replace the wire. However, I was wondering if anyone has thought of or tried using something like 1/4 dyneema instead, or in an emergency? It should be slippery and strong enough. Perhaps not rigid enough, as you have to leave the stay pretty loose, per this and other threads. Dropping the jib always requires pulling it down at the bow, so it’s not as though the hanks just slide right down the 3/8" steel wire. I appreciate any thoughts on how to improve the replacement forestay, set the tension on it etc.