SailNet Community

SailNet Community (
-   Gear & Maintenance (
-   -   What is the purpose of _this_ forestay?! (

scraph 02-06-2010 11:24 PM

What is the purpose of _this_ forestay?!
I have a sloop rig. It has a forestay installed which I am tempted to call an "adjustable baby forestay". The bottom end is shackled to a traveler car on a short fore-aft track located on the cabin sole just aft of the foreward hatch. The upper end is attached to the mast at an estimated 2/3 (possibly more) mast total height.

What would this set-up be called? What is the purpose of this adjustment?

Stillraining 02-06-2010 11:31 PM

You pretty much have it...The track is for tensioning....forward to tighten aft to loosen...That way mainly because when playing with your back stay tension you can quickly adjust your inter stay tension ....not so easily done with a hayfield to a single anchor point like mine.

tdw 02-07-2010 03:12 AM

Sounds like you are talking about a baby stay.

Does your boat have forward lowers ? If not then yes,definitely a baby stay, particularly as you say its attached to the (I presume you meant to say cabin top not sole) just aft of the hatch.

Here's another thread...

sailingdog 02-07-2010 08:39 AM

I am guessing your boat is a masthead rig, not fractionally rigged. IIRC, the stay you're describing is designed to allow you to alter the tension on the mast and induce some curvature to it, as well as prevent it from pumping. By moving the attachment point forward, you increase the tension and curvature, by moving it aft, you reduce the tension. You don't say what kind of boat this is, but I've seen such a setup on some of the C&C boats, like the C&C 38.

scraph 02-07-2010 09:05 AM

It is a C&C 32, masthead rig. Good prediction. Thanks for the information.

I certainly did mean cabin top and not cabin sole.... that would certainly be an incovenient stay. :) Thanks for the information, all.

pedcab 02-09-2010 05:39 AM

Yep, just like sailingdog said, it probably is a so called "baby stay" commonly found on mast top rigs and indispensable on spreaderless rigs...

I had to retrofit one to my Piver Nugget and I use it to induce some prebend to the mast and tension to the forestay under windy conditions... Some people alsow use to rig a heavy weather jib...

I control mine with a block reduction, though. Here's a pic:

Is this what you mean?



DwayneSpeer 02-09-2010 01:23 PM

Baby stay.
My boat is also fitted with a baby stay that is adjustable and is fitted to the foredeck about 18 inches forward of the mast; however I have a photo of the previous owner under full spinnaker with the baby stay fitted to a track that runs amid ship forward and with a sail hanked on to it. It looks like it could be made into a cutter rig. The photo was taken from a helicopter ( I think) and they are really flying judging from the wake they are leaving.

Sanduskysailor 02-09-2010 02:52 PM

Dwayne, cool picture of an IOR design flying on a reach. Actually that's not a babystay in the picture. The boat is flying a spinnaker staysail which is a sail with a high cut clew and a wire luff. Generally you fly staysails at around 100 to 150 degrees apparent. Note the reaching strut forward of the spinnaker trimmer holding the guy off the shrouds. The crew looks comfy in the cockpit in the picture. They probably need to get on the rail and aft with the pole on the headstay lest they find out why these IOR designs earned their reputation for rounding up.

DwayneSpeer 02-09-2010 07:51 PM

Yup, I know it's not acting as a baby stay in the photo but is now rigged as a baby stay with the possibility to move it back and use it as a staysail rig. Sort of multiuse.

Stillraining 02-09-2010 10:38 PM

Now Im getting confused on the me Baby stay= staysel stay= inter forestay ...same thing different


Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.7
Copyright ©2000 - 2014, vBulletin Solutions, Inc.
SEO by vBSEO 3.6.1
(c) LLC 2000-2012