Removing the forestay with roller furling.

[Kenneth K]

Anyone ever drop their roller-furling covered forestay? Is it possible to do without pulling the mast or using a crane? I'm trying to formulate a plan of attack for changing out the standing rigging, but can't get my head around the forestay.

Is there a turnbuckle inside the roller furler? It's a Harken:


How would you lower the forestay without bending the furler foil?

 

[Afrakes]

Is your foil one piece or sectional? Even one-piece foils are flexible enough to be lowered without damage. On some furlers there is a length adjustment screw in the lower drum housing. See if you can find the installation manual for your furler.

Are you planning on climbing the mast to disconnect the forestay, backstay, etc.? It can be done with many trips up and down. Tough dealing with the end of the spreaders though. Definitely best to pull the mast and do all of this on the ground.

 

[Kenneth K]

Foil is multi-sections (7, I think) and they assemble with hammered-in roll-pins so I don't think I could disassemble the foil aloft.

Yes, planning on climbing the mast an undoing the rigging 1/3 at a time. Hadn't thought about the extra pucker-factor of being at the top of the mast with some of the support rigging missing, though....

 

[Jerry VB]

Sailing Uma took down their forestay / roller furler in the episode "Our 6 month old Secret".

 

[Frank Langer]

A rigger replaced my forestay last year without removing the mast. I have a Harken furler. He added a line as a temporary forestay, undid the toggle inside the furler, pulled the furler extrusion off the wire forestay with my help as it's long, then used a bosun chair to get to the mast head to undo the forestay. He installed the new forestay in reverse order. The whole process took under 3 hours which included cutting and swaging the new forestay. After 20 years the old forestay showed slight "barber poling", beginning separation visible among the 19 wires, but no breakage. The rigger said it likely could have lasted a few more years, but I wanted to ensure the furler hadn't worn on the wires, so replaced it for peace of mind.
Frank

 

[Kenneth K]

Sailing Uma took down their forestay / roller furler in the episode "Our 6 month old Secret".

Thanks. The bend in the foil didn't seem excessive when the lowered it. And they didn't seem to bother with keep in it taught as they lowered it.

 

[Kenneth K]

A rigger replaced my forestay last year without removing the mast. I have a Harken furler. He added a line as a temporary forestay, undid the toggle inside the furler, pulled the furler extrusion off the wire forestay with my help as it's long

Thanks. Hadn't thought about pulling the foil off while the top of the stay is still connected.

Seems like that would be a hard way to reassemble though. How do you hold the bottom of the.forestay as you're sliding the foil back up around it?

 

[goldenstate]

I came across some vintage Harken instructional videos while I was adjusting my furler/forestay.

They may help to illustrate how everything fits together.

 

[william.haas]

@Kenneth K, I definitely recommend dropping the mast to re-rig the boat. The amount of time savings alone would be worth it in my opinion if you plan to do all of the standing rigging. You will also be able to get better measurements of the existing rigging, be able to easily inspect/replace tangs and toggles, check sheaves, replace bulbs, etc.. A number of yacht clubs also have cranes (at least here in Chicago)... maybe ask a friend? Also, if you have never done it, dropping the mast is easy with a few extra hands and careful planning (of which I am happy to share). On our Ericson 28 it takes about 20 minutes in each direction. Just my $0.02.

 

[Afrakes]

@Kenneth K, I definitely recommend dropping the mast to re-rig the boat. The amount of time savings alone would be worth it in my opinion if you plan to do all of the standing rigging. You will also be able to get better measurements of the existing rigging, be able to easily inspect/replace tangs and toggles, check sheaves, replace bulbs, etc.. A number of yacht clubs also have cranes (at least here in Chicago)... maybe ask a friend? Also, if you have never done it, dropping the mast is easy with a few extra hands and careful planning (of which I am happy to share). On our Ericson 28 it takes about 20 minutes in each direction. Just my $0.02.

The 32 mast is keel stepped. Much more involved.

 

[Frank Langer]

Sliding the furler extrusion back over the headstay was easy, as he attached it at the top, then put it in the top of the extrusion, raised the extrusion with the forestay inside, no problem.
Frank

 

[Kenneth K]

@Kenneth K, I definitely recommend dropping the mast to re-rig the boat.

Ideally, I think it would be better to re-rig with the mast dropped. But I'm 4 hours away from the nearest haulout facility, and my next haulout is scheduled in May. West Marine says the turnaround time on rigging is only about a week or two during the winter, if I take down parts and bring them to them (no measuring involved). In the summertime the waits are much longer due to commercial jobs.

And, I already had the mast rewired in 2016 when I set up the boat after delivery. All it really needs now is a standing rigging, so pulling the mast adds on a lot of extra work.

 

[Kenneth K]

I came across some vintage Harken instructional videos while I was adjusting my furler/forestay.

Nice! That's the same furler I have.

 

[toddster]

It bends some on the way down - same as when it went up!

 

[steven]

I've also have been thinking about re-rigging.
Approach would be to drop the mast and have West Marine or someone make up the new rigging using the old as template.

However I have heard stories of the new rigging not fitting when the mast is re-stepped even though the measurements were supposedly dups of the old.

Is that something real to worry about or just a myth?

--Steve

 

[Kenneth K]

It bends some on the way down - same as when it went up!

Never seen one raised nor lowered.

 

[Christian Williams]

With a keel-stepped mast I would start with a good rigger and hear what he has to say about what needs to be replaced and how to do it.

There's a long list of things to do to a 30-year-old mast--probably everything, including repainting. It all gets expensive fast.

An experienced rigger would give a rational list of options and tell you what it costs.

 

[william.haas]

I've also have been thinking about re-rigging.
Approach would be to drop the mast and have West Marine or someone make up the new rigging using the old as template.

However I have heard stories of the new rigging not fitting when the mast is re-stepped even though the measurements were supposedly dups of the old.

Is that something real to worry about or just a myth?

--Steve

I’m not an expert here but my rigger has told me, particularly on rigs that are well beyond the years when they should have been replaced, that the “stretch” can impact measurements. But that could have been him exercising the ability to know something more than his customer thereby justifying his rate. I could rant about folks who make their living on a billable hour but then I remember I am one of them.

 

[goldenstate]

I've also have been thinking about re-rigging.
Approach would be to drop the mast and have West Marine or someone make up the new rigging using the old as template.

However I have heard stories of the new rigging not fitting when the mast is re-stepped even though the measurements were supposedly dups of the old.

Is that something real to worry about or just a myth?

--Steve

In the SF Bay area there are a half-dozen West Marine shops, but all the standing rigging work is done by a West Marine team in Alameda. Turn your old cables in at the Richmond store, and they get trucked to Alameda for the work. So, the guys who do rigging all the time should be pretty good at it. I suspect the arrangement is similar in Annapolis.

The Turnbuckle system should give you some margin of error.

Failing all that, if they give you the wrong length rigging, you can go back in and be the angry guy demanding a refund. The only way to know if they have given you the right length rigging is to measure it yourself. I went through this for my synthetic standing rigging order. It is time consuming but not rocket science:

Standing Rigging Replacement: Ordering from Colligo

sailboatrefit.com

 

[HerbertFriedman]

dont bring your rigging to the West Marine store, it is closed and so is the one near the Oakland Embarcadero.