Changing furler forestay without pulling mast

[Markhunter1097]

Dont forget to mouse the forestay before you pull it out of the foil otherwise you will have to pull the foil apart

[Josephcrawl]

Originally Posted by Markhunter1097

Dont forget to mouse the forestay before you pull it out of the foil otherwise you will have to pull the foil apart

To mouse the stay is it enough to tape the butts together or is a wire splice called for?

[roverhi]

Dropped the ProFurl headstay on my Pearson 35 mostly by myself. Boat was in a slip with fingers both sides which made it way easier and safer. Used the spinnaker halyard as a replacement for the headstay, dropped the stay with the Genoa Halyard and used the main halyard for the ATN Mast Climber to get up and down the mast. Slacked off the backstay to give some slack in the headstay so I could pull the pin at the mast head. Had a friend cradle the stay to keep it as staight as during the initial phases of lowering and hoisting. The furler extrusion is surprisingly stiff but you don't want to kink it as that would be expensive.

Changing the headstay was easy. Used StaLok terminals at both ends but you could go with a swage at the top if you wanted. I separated the extrusion pieces to run the 1x19 wire through which made it easy. Did fish the wire through on an intact furler extrusion on another boat. It was a PITA as the wire got hung up on every junction and had to shake the extrusion and twist the wire to get it to line up with the hole in bearing at the unions. Got it done but it took three of us and a bit of time to fish it through.

Getting up and down the mast is a time saving excuse to buy an ATN Top Climber or climbing gear and harness. I ended up going up and down the mast 7 times dropping and reinstalling the headstay. Many of the trips were to get forgotten tools, etc because I was working alone. A helper that I could have dropped a canvas bucket to to get the needed tools/parts would have made it easier. FWIW, I was 65, not at my high school weight and wrestling conditioning so wouldn't let age or conditioning be an excuse.

[JPA Cate]

Originally Posted by Josephcrawl

To mouse the stay is it enough to tape the butts together or is a wire splice called for?

When Jim does it, he splices the wires together.

Ann

[Markhunter1097]

Originally Posted by Josephcrawl

To mouse the stay is it enough to tape the butts together or is a wire splice called for?

When my rigger did it, he removed wire strands then laid the mouse to that with tape
If I remember it was a very tight fit and needed a lot of convincing to get the new wire in, getting the old one out wasn’t as bad

[Jim Cate]

How I do it:

Pull a couple of feet of the old wire out of the foil and unlay the outer windings for about 4-6 inches, and cut them off, leaving the core windings intact.

On new wire, unlay outer windings a similar distance and cut out the inner core windings.

Butt the two wires together and relay the outer windings over the other core. This makes a smooth joint with no changes in diameter to hang up in the bearings.

Guiding the wires gently, push on the new wire, driving the old wire down the foil until it reappears at the other end. Then, using a balanced force of pulling and pushing, retrieve the old wire which pulls the new one smoothly through all the bearings. The splice is fairly strong, but if you continue to push on the new wire, little stress is put upon the splice and I've never had one fail (touching wood surreptitiously).

Jim

[capn_billl]

I assisted my rigger doing exactly that on a Leopard catamaran with a 60ft profurl.

Like the above stated.

Several halyards tightened to support mast.

Wait for a calm day.

I was tied at dock, also additional lines to dock so nothing moved.

It took 4 people to hold everything, and lower the length of the dock.

[b.needalman]

I put a halyard on the forward cleat to repair the anchor roller that also served at the lower attachment for the forestry. The shrouds needed to be loosened to detach the forestry.

[Bluechart]

Yes, we did this on a 41’ Beneteau.

After supporting the mast with halyards, the rigger disconnected the bottom of the forestay, and we maneuvered the forestay and drum outside the pulpit and lifelines, then I held it on the dock.

Rigger went up the mast, tied a safety line to the foil, disconnected the forestay, then as I walked down the dock with the forestay/furling drum in hand, the rigger came down with the forestay.

We removed the foil and did our repairs on the dock, then in the afternoon we reversed the process, and reinstalled the completed forestry assembly.

[nofacey]

Have done this both at dock and in yard……either was fine. Would avoid doing it at anchor if I could…..simply more to go wrong, and not a fan of dipping freshly rebuilt gear in salt water….

[Pat_D]

If you don't have enough halyards, any line secured to the top of the mast and a forward cleat or whatever will serve as a temp stay. And, as mentioned above, secure the lowering halyard/line a few feet down, so you can lift it over the pulpit.
I don't know why it wouldn't work in water nicely, but surely land would be more straightforward.

[OneBoatman]

I've done this before successfully several time on different boats. Its easier if you are not halyard shy. Hopefully you have a spare jib halyard or a spinnaker halyard. You can do this with a single jib halyard, the one normally used to raise the roller furling jib and a borrowed main halyard if the tail of the jib halyard is long enough. First drop the jib and then back off tension on the backstay to put the mast near a neutral standing position. Send a person aloft with a neede nose pliers and a spare line to rig as a temporary head stay from near the head down to cleat near the bow. Temp forestay is rigged. The person aloft should then be lowered to tie first a half hitch about 3/4 up the foil and then a rolling hitch at about 2/3 of the way up. Then raise the climber back up to the masthead to be ready when it is time to unpin the stay at the masthead. The hoist person should then tie a 10-15 ft length of light line around the foil just above the furler to use as lower control line whe you lowering it. Relax tension on the turnbuckle at the tack and unpin it. Now in order to unpin the stay at the head put tension on the halyard you tied to the foil as I described to take the wt of the foil off of the upper clevis so that the person aloft can disconnect the head of the headstay. Once the head is disconnected then raise the foil just high enough so that the person on the foredeck can clear the base of furler above and outside the lifelines and walk the foil aft away from the boat as the foil is lowered. The assembly will be heavier than you expect so work slowly and methodically. This can be done with two people but you have to lower the person aloft before lowering the foil. This way you have one person to lower the foil and the other to walk the foil clear as it is lowered. To replace the headstay you may have to disassemble the segments unless you are rebuilding using swageless type fittings and if that is the case then you can just cut off one end and slide the old stay out of the foils. Be certain to save both pieces so that you can establish its length accurately against the new one. The finished length of the replacement stay should be near exactly the same length as the old one within a quarter of an inch assuming it was proper to begin with. For turnbuckles your target is ~ 2/3 open when near working tension.