Storm Sail for Cat without Inner Forestay

[STEREOTYPE]

Hi,
We are presently gearing up for a year in the Louisiades, Solomons, New Cal etc & we own a Catana 42s. We are deliberating on whether to get a gale sail or rig a removable stay as we have no inner forestay .
Can anybody other any advice.

[Talbot]

removable stay, and hanked on storm sail is a much better option. Remember you are putting up this sail in a lot of wind, and the gale is double the size of the other.

Plus you then have another place to put a second foresail for running downwind - much better rig.

[STEREOTYPE]

Yeh, I figured that this was the best way. Now all I have to to is work out how to rig it as our cat has only a thin Fibreglass walkway between the tramps. so there is nothing to attach the inner forestay to

[spiritcat]

Another option is to have a pad eye fixed to the cat walk and a double purchase halyard from the mast as an inner forestay. The storm jib is then made with a fixed wire luff and when needed, the tack is clipped to the pad eye and the head connected to the halyard and tensioned on the winch.
I am setting the same system up on my Spirited 380 and also making up a staysail to use between the genoa and storm jib.

Peter

[STEREOTYPE]

Yeh, I been looking @ that but my cat walk is only fibreglass & doesn't look strong enough to take the strain of a attached sail/halyard. I'm trying to work out how to stiffen it or run a temporary s/s cable from my forebeam to the mast base with a attachment point to connect what you described. Would have been easier if Crowther/Catana had designed something originally. What is strange is that there is a takeoff lug in my mast below the genoa furler obviously for a innere forestay.

[mark_morwood]

When you say gale sail, I assume you are referring to the storm sail of that name that fastens around a furled genoa/jib and is hoisted with a separate halyard using the rolled genoa as the stay.

Though there are some clear advantages to a hanked on jib on a separate forestay if you have somewhere suitable to mount it, you might want to balance the tradeoffs of convenience and effort a little differently and go with a gale sail. When you don't need it, the gale sail is certainly easier to store than the additional forestay.

I have a gale sail on my cat as a storm sail, but have only rigged it in benign conditions so far so can't say how well it will really work in nasty weather, but from it's design I'd say there is a good chance. Remember that whatever you are rigging in those conditions, you do have the advantage of a large level platform to work from.

Mark.

[Jmolan]

Consider a bridle of synthetic Dynex Dux coming from the inside of your hulls to a point where you can run up a sail. This would solve the weak spot in the middle problem.
It is entirely possible now to have a sail with a Dux for a luff and you do not need a stay. Get a 2-1 block and hoist it up tight and sheet it in and go. Many of the round' world race boats rig this way. No more forestay's, just many sails on synthetic luffs, rolled up on continuous line furlers.

[cal40john]

Originally Posted by Jmolan

Consider a bridle of synthetic Dynex Dux coming from the inside of your hulls to a point where you can run up a sail. This would solve the weak spot in the middle problem.
It is entirely possible now to have a sail with a Dux for a luff and you do not need a stay. Get a 2-1 block and hoist it up tight and sheet it in and go. Many of the round' world race boats rig this way. No more forestay's, just many sails on synthetic luffs, rolled up on continuous line furlers.

Not that I know for certain, but I thought those boats still had a permanent headstay and forestay with a furler. They could be synthetic. But the only sail that uses its own luff wire (synthetic or otherwise) to set on is the Code 0 which sets ahead of the headstay. It is a reaching sail that can be used upwind in light air. It doesn't need the luff to be as straight as for high wind upwind sails. The halyard running hardware has to be extremely strong to take the loads when you tighten the halyard enough to be able to point. The people using the first generation of furlers which went up on their own luff wire found that out by chewing up their running parts.

John

[spiritcat]

An inner forestay that is removeable usually connects to the foredeck with a hyfield lever and then a staysail or storm jib is hanked onto the stay. The same can be accomplished by having the storm jib manufactured with a wire luff and using a double purchase halyard to get the required luff tension. Code 0 or screechers use the same arrangement, but often have a double synthetic line to enable the sail to be furled.

Peter

[SailFastTri]

Originally Posted by Jmolan

Consider a bridle of synthetic Dynex Dux coming from the inside of your hulls to a point where you can run up a sail. This would solve the weak spot in the middle problem.
It is entirely possible now to have a sail with a Dux for a luff and you do not need a stay. Get a 2-1 block and hoist it up tight and sheet it in and go. Many of the round' world race boats rig this way. No more forestay's, just many sails on synthetic luffs, rolled up on continuous line furlers.

Bingo! This is the only way, IMHO. The Gale Sail is a bad idea because it will put too much side-pressure and chafe on the furled sail beneath it.

Do not even think about putting a fore-aft stay between the front beam and mast. The forces would be huge and in a direction that the beam isn't reinforced for -- I absolutely guaranty that you would bend the beam if you did that in conditions warranting a storm sail.

[SailFastTri]

One more thing....
Perpendicular loading on a taught line will magnify the loads on a bridle by a multiple of the force on the stay itself. Make sure your hull attachment points for the bridle that anchors the inner stay are well-backed with beefy stainless or aluminum backing plates to spread the load, and capable of handling thousands of pounds of pull.

For example -- In the image below, the smaller person (the inner stay) can easily overcome the two larger ones (the hull attachment points) if they all pull. (Source Rope and Three Students)