AmSteel Inner Forestay ?

[Ironhorse74]

I have a 35 foot cutter. The PO removed the inner fore stay. The forestay is MIA. I have a stay sail. The lug on the mast and the chainplate are present. I am assuming the PO did this for easier tacking. I have been toying with the idea of using Am-steel and an over and under quick release. That way I could coil it and and secure it to the mast when I wanted it out of the way. What does the collective think?

[donradcliffe]

How do you attach the staysail to the inner forstay?? Are those attachments going to chafe through the synethetic material?

[roverhi]

Believe you can use Dyneema or other synthetic loops to hank on the sail. These new synthetics are quite chafe resistant and should hold up okay if care is taken to inspect for chafe regularly. Still would rather have a wire staysail stay so there was not worry of chafe.

[andrewsc]

Talk to these guys. They are excellent at steering you toward appropriate use of synthetics.

Home

[Jim Cate]

IIRC, Evans Starzinger has reported using this method successfully, including use of bronze hanks on the Dyneema stay.

Seems like a very practical method to me.

Cheers,

Jim

[smurphny]

One method that I've seen mentioned here is to use a dyneema/amsteel halyard with a full dyneema boltrope and pennants. No permanent forestay needed. Just run a block up top and an extra cleat below. Use the jib winch to tension.

[Paul L]

There's a lot of fittings available here
Home
I used the DynexDux for my inner stay.

[Ironhorse74]

Thanks for all the input. I think I will go order up the Am-steel now

Brad

[Sailingboy]

Amsteel is plenty strong and reliable buy are you going to be able to adjust the tension to it? Cause you can't put a turnbuckle on it. On a few of the boats a sail/race on we play with the tension frequently for the mast bend and just to tension it period. You don't want it too loose

[Ironhorse74]

I think I will bring it back to the jib winch and install some rope clutches. Should be able to tension it correctly.

[travler37]

How do you deal with chafing in a synthetic stay?
Something i have not considered but a over sized/over length am steel stay would double as a oh crap weather is hitting anchor rode to.
thank you
Mark

[Paul L]

Originally Posted by travler37

How do you deal with chafing in a synthetic stay?
Something i have not considered but a over sized/over length am steel stay would double as a oh crap weather is hitting anchor rode to.
thank you
Mark

The stays need to be sized for creep, not for strength, so this will minimize any stretch. You can adjust using a lashing with end fittings like:

To avoid chafe you hank the sail on with soft shackles:


This is what I used on my inner stay for a storm jib.