RE: catalina27-talk: Broken forestay advice

[Phil Agur]

Jon,   The first question is why did it break? Was there a missing rigging toggle when the furler was installed?   If the answer is it was just old (more than 7 years) then why is there not one more wire ready to break if someone climbs the mast. I knew a skipper who just never got around to changing his rigging on a ’76 and it went 23 years before parting under sail so results may vary.   The best approach might be to drop the mast and replace the standing rigging in one fell swoop. Taking the boat out of the water isn’t a necessity to un-step the mast that’s more of a function of your resources.   If you can assign a cause to the failure other than general condition of the rigging then I might go up to change it out with a pair of halyards to carry its load, one for the chair (a mast ladder in my case), and one more for a safety line.   Wing Tip is set-up so I can step it by myself (no helpers) but we have a tabernacle not a mast mouse. I’ve done other similar sized boats by using halyards from two adjacent sailboats. There are articles on building an A-frame hoist to lower a C27 mast. I’ve seen a shorter mast (above the spreaders in height) stood on a padded deck and lashed off to raise and lower mast. And there’s always using the swing out small boat hoist at the YC.   Any one of these approaches takes a crew of 3 or 4 to handle lines while the mast is being lowered. The drill is all about the same. What ever you choose just be safe about it. If there wiring to deal with set the mast end on securely on some blocking before you put fingers under it. I’ve had bystanders jump on to help at the most inopportune moments.   It’s always best to have the rigging matched when doing a restoration on a boat that could have a rigging change before now. Sure the overall length might be known but what if the turnbuckles are a different length and the wire length was changed to compensate in the last refit.   When you send in rigging to SECO they want turnbuckles and all and they return all new including new turnbuckles.   Phil Agur                    s/v Wing Tip Commodore,             Call Sign WCW3485 IC27/270A                   MMSI 366901790 www.catalina27.org      Vessel Doc# 1039809 -----Original Message----- From: catalina27-talk@memberclicks.com [mailto:catalina27-talk@memberclicks.com] On Behalf Of Jon Prestage Sent: Saturday, June 10, 2006 7:42 PM To: catalina27-talk@memberclicks.com Subject: catalina27-talk: Broken forestay advice   Hi all,   While sailing on my 150 genoa today, my forestay broke. I have a hood furler and was able to roll in the genoa and, of course, the mast is still up. Do I need to take the boat out of the water to replace the forestay? Is it safe to use a bos'n chair to go up the mast to undo the fittings up there? My C-27 is a 1975. Can I just order a new forestay from, say, Catalina Direct, or do I need to actually measure the broken one (It broke at the swag fitting at the foredeck.) I cannot imagine why it wouldn't be a standard. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. I am in Wilmington NC and the last thing I want to do is take the boat out of the water to fix this.   Jon 1858 Zephyrus