My forestay broke, anyone else?

Submitted by karafiath on Mon, 08/03/2009 - 07:58
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Maintenance, Repairs, Changes, and Upgrades

During the Selby bay races ( 15 knots wind) this summer I got dismasted. The head jib grommet, the internal wire in the jib and the forestay extension all broke in the incident. I suspect that the forestay extension snapped first ( pretty old, broke at the bow plate hole) followed by the head grommet pulling out of the jib and then followed by the wire in the forestay.
Bill Draheim of Gus Sails fixed my jib very nicely and said that the internal wire, since it is slack in order to get luff tension, gets a snap load and breaks. He has repaired several jibs from Scots and other classes. He recomends a beefier forestay for the Scot. Do away with the wire in the jib as several other classess have done. In my and several other cases it did not act as a safety device.

By the way, another boat also got dis-masted (forestay issues) at the same regatta and I read of a boat in Sarasota that was dismasted due to forestay failure.

When I purchased the Scot ages ago the literature that Sandy Douglas wrote indicated he designed the twin stay and toggle system to share the load and that the toggle should be level when hoisting the jib in order to equalize load between the forestay and jib.

Today we set up the boat differently for racing. Virtually everyone tensions the forestay jamming the toggle and races with less jib tension in order to get just slight "crows feet" off the jib snaps.

The Scot is supposed to be reputed to be sturdy as evidenced by the number of gracefully ancient Scots still sailing.

My question is: How many of you have been dismasted as a result of foestay / jib failures? and

Should the class do something about this?

Thanks Gabor Karafiath FS 3512

FS5257

Tue, 08/04/2009 - 14:12

It has been recommended that for Scots left on a mooring for an extended period (longer than overnight), utilize the jib halyard (in addition to the forestay) to stabilize the mast and eliminate the 'slop' which causes the wear on the forestay extension. The halyard gets attached to the hand hold and snugged up fairly taught.

FS5257

Tue, 08/04/2009 - 14:20

Harry also recommends replacing the standing rigging every FIVE YEARS.

With almost certainty, one can assume all of the failures occurred with rigging that exceeded this recommendation.

The 'looks good / no rust & my boat is hardly used' arguement does not apply.

HarryC

Sat, 10/24/2009 - 16:56

It is not practical to pick a fixed period of time to replace standing rigging. There are too many variables to be considered that make it impossible to say how long the rigging will last in a blanket statement.

The biggest enemy of the standing rig is vibration. A loose rig allows the wire in the standing rig to vibrate a lot each time the boat rocks. The vibration terminates at the swages and work hardens the stainless wire so that it breaks just above the swage usually just one wire at a time. A boat that is left to sit in the water with the rig loose can easily break a shroud or forestay inside of a few weeks. Put the jib halyard on either the jib tack shackle or the bow eye and crank it tight to eliminate any play in the rig. I do this even if I am going leave the boat for just an hour or so while I have lunch.

Harry Carpenter, FS 5248

JHS

Fri, 09/24/2010 - 10:26

When I did my "immediate-emergency-mast-take-down" with the help of an overhead cable, the forestay extension sheared clean right at the bowplate fitting. I am not sure of the shape of a new fitting but the hole in mine has a bit of a right-angle rather than a rounded hole. I think that's a weak spot in the rig. As it came down it made a 90 deg. turn (bending the hinge) so the mast landed on its side. The force of it falling caused a fatal crease in the mast. The point being I don't know if the weaker "forestay breaks so the mast doesn't bend" theory holds up. In my instance a stronger forestay extension would probably have kept the mast up. I would like to see the Thistle fairlead idea adapted.

"If the sea did wild or wicked things, it was because she could not help them." - Hemingway