Frank Langer
1984 Ericson 30+, Nanaimo, BC
Jamiem,
I have thought about this a bit, as you can see from my post above. I don't know what kind of furler you have, and how it's rigged. I have a Harken furler which, at the bottom, has toggles to connect it to the headstay at the bow. From there it attaches to several aluminum pieces (I forget what they're called--extrusions, maybe), and at the top there is a furler piece that sits on the aluminum furler section. The headsail halyard connects to the head of the sail and the top furler piece and is hauled up those extrusions (?) til it gets to the masthead. The whole furler--bottom drum, aluminum extrusion pieces and the top piece all rotate around the headstay. So on my boat if the headstay breaks, it would no longer support all of this, the furler would fall, the headstay would hang loose and the mast would fall backward into the cockpit. At least, that's how I picture it all. The only thing that I think could prevent that would be running an additional line from the masthead to the bow, but it would have to be done in such a way as to not get wound up in the furler/sail as it turns.
If someone has another suggestion for how to prevent the mast falling in event of headstay failure, I'd love to hear it.
Frank
I have thought about this a bit, as you can see from my post above. I don't know what kind of furler you have, and how it's rigged. I have a Harken furler which, at the bottom, has toggles to connect it to the headstay at the bow. From there it attaches to several aluminum pieces (I forget what they're called--extrusions, maybe), and at the top there is a furler piece that sits on the aluminum furler section. The headsail halyard connects to the head of the sail and the top furler piece and is hauled up those extrusions (?) til it gets to the masthead. The whole furler--bottom drum, aluminum extrusion pieces and the top piece all rotate around the headstay. So on my boat if the headstay breaks, it would no longer support all of this, the furler would fall, the headstay would hang loose and the mast would fall backward into the cockpit. At least, that's how I picture it all. The only thing that I think could prevent that would be running an additional line from the masthead to the bow, but it would have to be done in such a way as to not get wound up in the furler/sail as it turns.
If someone has another suggestion for how to prevent the mast falling in event of headstay failure, I'd love to hear it.
Frank