Replacing forestay...?

[marinesniper]

Hello, I am new to things...I need to replace my forestay, and I was wondering what is the best way to support the mast while doing this...?

My boat is deck stepped... I want to use the mainsail shroud for support, connecting it to the fore part of the boat, then climb the mast and disconnect the forestay...

Please help me with some recomendations, or a link to some pictures on how to do this that might help...

thanks...

[HoffaLives]

not sure why you need to support the mast -slacken off the backstay and the shrouds should keep the mast up. if you are worried though, use a halyard; the jib or mainsail halyard can be attached to a cleat or something on the bow and tightened up to take the tension off the stay.

i had to do this to fit my boat in a travelift. it couldn't reach the boat with the forestay in place so we used a halyard to take the tension off the forestay and disconnected it from the bow.

[Idiens]

It depends on your rig. If you have four mid shrouds and two cap shrouds, Hoffa is right. If all your shrouds come down to one point, port and stbd, then you will need to rig a halyard to temporarily replace the tension of the forestay.

Anyway, releasing the tension of the back stay and using a halyard to replace the forestay, so leaning the mast forward a little will help a lot in getting the new forestay attached prior to re-tensioning.

[Faster]

By the look of it, your fore-and-aft lower spreaders have a fairly wide base so the mast isn't going to fall over if you remove the forestay.

But if you plan to climb the mast to do this job you'll probably appreciate the extra support of a temporary forestay, just take a jib halyard, attach it to the deck or toerail and tension it.

Loosen or disconnect the forestay turnbuckle or fittings at the deck before going up to undo the top end... take a messenger line with you to tie on to help lower the forestay to the deck once its off.

Have a trusted friend on the other end of the halyard you're on

[Sailormon6]

Whenever something isn't supposed to happen, Murphy's Law says that it will, from-time-to-time. It only takes a couple of minutes to rig a halyard as a safety line to replace the disconnected headstay, but it can save you weeks in a hospital.

[TrueBlue]

Originally Posted by marinesniper

Please help me with some recomendations, or a link to some pictures on how to do this that might help...

thanks...

There is another, more extreme way to reach your forestay mast connection . . . without the need for going aloft.

Just rig up this device while anchored alongside a high fixed pier during low tide.

No forestay needed . . . just be sure your shrouds are secure.

[runexe]

Ummm... oops? I have to ask, is there a story that goes with that picture? Cuz I'm very curious. Are those a couple medicine balls or something?

[TrueBlue]

runexe,
The series of photos were from a current thread located HERE.

I guess you missed the embedded hyperlink.

[soulesailor]

You definitely can do it the way Faster describes with the halyard rigged as a temporary forestay supporting the rig while you climb aloft. I helped my friend replace his backstay this fall in this exact manner and it went off without a hitch. He rented a slip for a day (his boat lives on a mooring) and he took a line up with him to lower the cable down to the deck. One more trip up with the new cable and he was off (he couldn't just hoist the new one up then because he used the old one as a reference for the rigging shop to make the new one). He also got some cool pictures of his boat while he was up there!

[sailingdog]

TB-

You just had to go there...