Replace Forestay?

[snickets]

Hi guys. Somewhat of a noob at sailboat maintenance here. I just bought a sailboat last summer and now when inspecting the rigging I noticed that the forestay doesn't look too good. Does it need replacing or could I just "rotate it back to into shape", will it hold (none of the threads are broken)?

[boatman61]

Replace it.... never trust stainless wire to far..

[sww914]

Mine had a similar kink in it but only 10% as bad and everybody said to replace it. Stainless isn't very ductile.

[svHyLyte]

Originally Posted by snickets

Hi guys. Somewhat of a noob at sailboat maintenance here. I just bought a sailboat last summer and now when inspecting the rigging I noticed that the forestay doesn't look too good. Does it need replacing or could I just "rotate it back to into shape", will it hold (none of the threads are broken)?

Looks like the results of a halyard wrap with a furling line on a winch. Replace the headstary and if a furler is used, add a halyard guide.

[Rakuflames]

Originally Posted by snickets

Hi guys. Somewhat of a noob at sailboat maintenance here. I just bought a sailboat last summer and now when inspecting the rigging I noticed that the forestay doesn't look too good. Does it need replacing or could I just "rotate it back to into shape", will it hold (none of the threads are broken)?

Snickets, I'm not an expert on everything by any means but I do know about this one. That is a very serious problem. Your forestay is compromised and needs to be replaced. See, what happened there is going to happen again.

PLEASE -- go to my blog (at the bottom of this post) and read the article "Your Mast Could Come Down -- Really!" It's about that problem and what the fix is, which is a halyard restraint. It's not an expensive fix.

I actually know someone who had two new halyards in two days because the first guy who worked on their boat replaced the forestay but didn't fix the halyard problem. That's inexcusable but it happened.

The photo on my blog of the "fix" shows a more expensive device, but often a simple pad eye works well.

Don't just replace the forestay. Redirect the headsail halyard as well.

[Bash]

Not only replace the stay, but re-rig the halyard so it can't destroy the new stay.

[Rakuflames]

Originally Posted by Bash

Not only replace the stay, but re-rig the halyard so it can't destroy the new stay.

AMEN! And it's not hard to do.

[delmarrey]

As a note:

SS does not like to be bent more then once. It work hardens. Once it's bent it has to stay that way. When you try to bend it back, that is when the damage occurs. It creates micro cracks that are not visible to the eye, which also let in moisture causing corrosion as well.

[Bash]

And welcome to the forum, by the way.

(Don't expect this sort of consensus as a general rule. We rarely agree this readily.)

[snickets]

Ah, I just realized that the reason it bent like that was that the previous owner didn't know how to rig the furler properly so it didn't work when I bought the boat. I fixed the problem soon after so that won't be a problem. Looks like I need a new forestay though.

[haiqu]

Originally Posted by Rakuflames

PLEASE -- go to my blog (at the bottom of this post) and read the article "Your Mast Could Come Down -- Really!" It's about that problem and what the fix is, which is a halyard restraint. It's not an expensive fix.

Nice blog. I've been stuck reading it for an hour!