Twin headstays

[UNCIVILIZED]

Originally Posted by estarzinger

A racer might not be happy, but for a cruiser the side by side stay tension was not a problem (for us).

Guilty as charged.
Not that I at all regret it, winning silver, drinking & fine dining, travel, & playing with someone else's CHOICE toys on THEIR dime (AND getting paid for it). Well, it's not so bad. Especially when you wind up dating the owner's daughter... a cliché I know, but prime livin' regardless.
Oh, & I've got my cruising miles too ;-)

[GILow]

Originally Posted by crazyoldboatguy

. It sounded like one poster had a roller furler on one of the stays. Not sure why you would do that - most furling foils have 2 slots, no need for a twin headstay.

It's a somewhat outmoded way of doing things what with the advent of twin track furler foils. It is perfectly serviceable if installed correctly.

Just noticed this interesting point, yes the furler has twin slots, but I am buggered if I can work out how you'd get two sails on it at once without a lot of messing around. The halyard that pulls the foresail up the furler is a single item, one end goes up as the other comes down. The whole lot rotates with the furler. Might be an older system? I wondered if somehow you are supposed to haul one sail up the slot while the other is coming down. Seems silly to me, but I don't have the sort of experience to evaluate it.

Anyway, having an extra forestay gives us much flexibility, particularly on our cutter rig as we can run the staysail from the forward forestay. Or, if we were caught out in the back of beyond, easily obtain an old sail with hanks to get us on our way again if we blew out one of the furler sails. I like it, it's very quick to hank on a bit of extra canvas as needed, and flexible. Just so flexible.

Wish I could figure out the whole twin slot on the furler though...

Matt

[sanibel sailor]

Racers use the furler as a foil only, dispense with the halyard swivel and use twin halyards. I had mulled over trying to attach two jibs to the swivel and hoisting simultaneously, but luff tension would be a challenge. I also envision myself at the pointy part smothered in canvas trying to get both fed simultaneously.

[GILow]

Originally Posted by sanibel sailor

Racers use the furler as a foil only, dispense with the halyard swivel and use twin halyards. I had mulled over trying to attach two jibs to the swivel and hoisting simultaneously, but luff tension would be a challenge. I also envision myself at the pointy part smothered in canvas trying to get both fed simultaneously.

Ah, that makes more sense, a racing thing. Lots of crew, desire to go really fast...

I certainly can't imagine messing around with that setup in a blow, short handed. I get in enough of a mess just swapping the between the yankee and the reacher while I am still in the pen, now the reacher lives in a bag in the sail locker.

I reckon I will stick with the "old fashioned" setup that I have, yankee on the furler and hank on other bits and bobs to the forward stay when required, staysail whenever I have the energy.

Matt

[Glenn.Brooks]

Lots of cruisers have written about difficulties of tensioning twin head stays. I've never tried it, but have installed a removable Solent stay on my alberg 30. It tacks down to the aft end of the bow fitting that also holds the forestay-although a suitably reinforced deck eye just aft of the fore stay,tang would work equally well. A Solent usually gets it's own turnbuckle, so it can be tensioned properly.

I run a roller furling genoa on the forestay and hank on a second genoa for downwind twin head stays. Also use the Solent stay to hank on a working jyb and/or storm sail - which thankfully I've never has to use in earnest!

This rig works great, and I carry two spin poles to boom out the twin headsails using a "twizzle" rig. Essentially the inside end of both spin poles are hanked together with a 2' line with eyes in each end, and hosted aloft with a topping lift, and held down with a downhaul to the deck. Controls,the sails and flys free of the mast. Works great, without all the trouble of rigging twin headstays.



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