Help required - forestay and roller reefing

Anna-and-James · Post by **Anna-and-James** » Sun Jul 19, 2009 7:34 pm

Hi,

Just wondered if anyone could help us.

When we brought our Swift 18 back from the Norfolk Broads last year we noticed that the wire rigging at the top of the forestay (just before where it joins the mast) has become unwound. We suspect that this has been caused by raising and lowering the mast and travelling.

There appears to be an inner core and outer core of wire. The inner core has remained wound, but the outer part appears to be unwinding. None of the wires appear to be frayed. We have carried out a temporary repair by re-winding the cable and taping into position.

At the moment this is fine as we will only be doing light sailing this year. However, we would like to repair this for next year. Options include:

*replacing the entire forestay rigging and roller reefing,
*just replacing the rigging,
*or replacing the damaged section of rigging,

Any suggestions or similar experiences?

Cheers,

Anna, James and Jack of 'Faithful May' (S201)

mikeprojectboat · Post by **mikeprojectboat** » Sun Jul 19, 2009 8:19 pm

Sugest you change the cable, the roller reefing unit, uses the forestay cable as one. Allthough the cable is 4mm (1by19)and should have ample extra load built in, better be safe , than have it snap under load..... think what you could loose.!!!!! New rotor stay foil, it would bend when it hits the deck/water,possible mast as now you would have no forestay tension! and possible damaged sails.!!!! cable and fittingg approx £20 WELL WORTH IT!! REGARDS MIKE IN SUNNY NORFOLK

Robin Rew · Post by **Robin Rew** » Thu Jul 23, 2009 8:42 am

I think that some sailors may be unaware of the dangers of having a weakened forestay. If the forestay breaks, the mast will crash down and possibly pole-axe the helm.

Having had one break on my Hunter F1, I am ultra careful as it resulted in the mast snapping in two as it hit the hatch cover. Fortunately this happened as we were putting the boat on its trailer.

We had our forestay on our Swift 18 SNIPE renewed last year by Pinnell and Bax in Northampton. It involved taking the boat to them, on its trailer and was done while we waited.

----- Original Message -----
From: Anna-and-James (forum-rigging@swift18.org)
To: forum-rigging@swift18.org (forum-rigging@swift18.org)
Sent: Sunday, July 19, 2009 8:34 PM
Subject: [Swift 18] Help required - forestay and roller reefing

Hi,

Just wondered if anyone could help us.

When we brought our Swift 18 back from the Norfolk Broads last year we noticed that the wire rigging at the top of the forestay (just before where it joins the mast) has become unwound. We suspect that this has been caused by raising and lowering the mast and travelling.

There appears to be an inner core and outer core of wire. The inner core has remained wound, but the outer part appears to be unwinding. None of the wires appear to be frayed. We have carried out a temporary repair by re-winding the cable and taping into position.

At the moment this is fine as we will only be doing light sailing this year. However, we would like to repair this for next year. Options include:

*replacing the entire forestay rigging and roller reefing,
*just replacing the rigging,
*or replacing the damaged section of rigging,

Any suggestions or similar experiences?

Cheers,

Anna, James and Jack of 'Faithful May' (S201)

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Terry · Post by **Terry** » Thu Jul 23, 2009 9:30 am

When I first acquired my boat the furler was very tight and difficult to unwind. On inspection I found the forestay shredded with only a couple of strands left. I just took the forestay/furler assembly along to my local riggers and they charged me £20 removing the old stay wire and fitting a new plastic coated one. Not bad I thought!

Anna-and-James · Post by **Anna-and-James** » Sat Jul 25, 2009 10:42 pm

Thanks for all the very useful replies.

Does anyone please have any suggestions on where we could take our boat to have the forestay etc replaced? We are at Rutland Water (Midlands) but boat on good trailer so can travel.

Cheers

Anna and James

Rondonay · Post by **Rondonay** » Sat Jul 25, 2009 10:59 pm

Definitely Pinnel & Bax Northampton is worth considering, they have a big yard so taking the boat in would be easy. Recent mention said they did the forestay while the client waited.
Pauline

Jul 25, 2009 11:42:42 PM, forum-rigging@swift18.org (forum-rigging@swift18.org) wrote:

Thanks for all the very useful replies.

Does anyone please have any suggestions on where we could take our boat to have the forestay etc replaced? We are at Rutland Water (Midlands) but boat on good trailer so can travel.

Cheers

Anna and James

Post generated using Mail2Forum (http://www.mail2forum.com)

nickf · Post by **nickf** » Sat Aug 01, 2009 9:09 am

Hello Anna and James,
My "foestay"wire on one of the iriginal 1983 ROTOSTAYS began to slightly unravelI therefore unscrewed the 3 bolts holding the drum together, unscrewed the wire end from the drum and pulled out the wire and top fitting from the top of the foil. ( There are no intermediate collars in the foil) so very straght forward.We live near Jimmy Green marine in Beer so I took it their and collected it with new wire and end fittings the following day. THEY OPERATE A LARGE MAIL ORDER BUSINESS

Suggest you ring them on 01297 20744 someone called Peter is the expert but not normally there at W/E You could then post off the old one and get the new one back in a few days

PS They also do swageless DIY ends but for a key item like a forestay I preferred a professional job( Its been fine for 4 years)
ROTOSTAY were still operating 4 years ago and very helpful They come under the auspices of another company whose name escapes me
There are instructions in some of the old newsletters on Rototostay repairs.[/i]

Terry · Post by **Terry** » Sat Aug 01, 2009 9:52 am

If you end up taking the whole thing apart, take care. What is not made clear in the rotostay manual is that there are stainless ball bearings which can drop out when disassembling the drum. Also, there is a circlip (now unobtainable), which in my case was missing, causing the furler to work its way up the stay. I ended up drilling a small hole through the bottle screw adjuster type thingy and inserting a split pin.

Swift 18 Owners