headstay tension

[kmdudley7]

Hi folks.. Had my boat now for 6 months (new to me) have really been enjoying it a lot. Teaching wife to sail is fun too. I have a 2 part question here. I have a lot of slack in my foresaty. I have a (profurl) jib system. We have been caught in 2 'big blows" in 6 months. Jib has taken a whippin or 2 hahaha. My roller furling does not furl the sail all the way in now. I still have 2-3 wraps of jib left and no more furling line and I have to wrap jib manually.. NADA end on line on pulley. I have discovered my jib halyard has done a 180 wrap around my forestay up topside of mast. 1st question is: how do I undo the wrap on stay??? 2nd question: My hunter has a raked mast to aft. Backstay and forestay are very loose. When I say loose,, If I grab and shake the forestay above my head as far as I can reach, the play is maybe 8-10 " inches, Way too much I know. How tight do I need the forestay??

Thanx in advance

[knothead]

Originally Posted by kmdudley7

Hi folks.. Had my boat now for 6 months (new to me) have really been enjoying it a lot. Teaching wife to sail is fun too. I have a 2 part question here. I have a lot of slack in my foresaty. I have a (profurl) jib system. We have been caught in 2 'big blows" in 6 months. Jib has taken a whippin or 2 hahaha. My roller furling does not furl the sail all the way in now. I still have 2-3 wraps of jib left and no more furling line and I have to wrap jib manually.. NADA end on line on pulley. I have discovered my jib halyard has done a 180 wrap around my forestay up topside of mast. 1st question is: how do I undo the wrap on stay??? 2nd question: My hunter has a raked mast to aft. Backstay and forestay are very loose. When I say loose,, If I grab and shake the forestay above my head as far as I can reach, the play is maybe 8-10 " inches, Way too much I know. How tight do I need the forestay??

Thanx in advance

Seriously, with all due respect, you need to contact a knowledgeable, local rigger, or even another sailor that you trust, to familiarize you with your furler. You obviously don't know enough about it to operate it safely.

[knothead]

Also, if you have a Hunter, it's possible you have a B&R rig. Some of these boats don't have backstays. If you have one of these, you may as well give up on trying to get headstay tension.

[Selkirk]

You'll want to tighten the forestay and backstay to about 15-20% of their breaking strength. Shrouds are tightened to about 10% of breaking strength.

You'll need a tension gauge. Like this one:


When you get your tension gauge you get all the information you'll need, i.e. breaking strength of 3/16 stainless steel cable, which is probably what you've got.

My boat uses 1/4 inch cable and the breaking strength is 8,000 pounds, so my forestay and backstay are tensioned to 1200 pounds and shrouds are at 800 pounds.

It'll make a heckuva difference is the way your boat sails.

BTW.....America's Cup racers tension all rigging to 100% of breaking strength!

[shadypark]

There is an article posted by a fellow member that goes into great detail.

http://www.sailnet.com/forums/gear-m...-your-rig.html

I think talking to a local rigger is a pretty sound idea. One of the possible concerns is that the furler could be loosening your forestay which could have disastrous results...

Nice looking boat by the way:

good luck!

[Faster]

Originally Posted by knothead

Also, if you have a Hunter, it's possible you have a B&R rig. Some of these boats don't have backstays. If you have one of these, you may as well give up on trying to get headstay tension.

KH, not all the B&R rigs from Hunter were backstay-less. The early masthead versions had normal backstays, and even up to the mid 90s the fracs had a conventional backstay too.

It does sound like the OPs rig is ridiculously loose - and he does indeed need the services of a rigger as you suggest.

[knothead]

Originally Posted by Faster

KH, not all the B&R rigs from Hunter were backstay-less. The early masthead versions had normal backstays, and even up to the mid 90s the fracs had a conventional backstay too.

It does sound like the OPs rig is ridiculously loose - and he does indeed need the services of a rigger as you suggest.

Yeah, I quit reading before I got to the part where he mentioned the backstay. Some of the older hunters had a traditional rig and you're right, most of the older B&R's had backstays too.

I was mostly concerned about the fact that he doesn't know how to add a wrap or two of furling line on the drum or a wrap or two of the sheets around the sail and the fact that he is getting halyard wrap with a Pro-Furl. The Wrap Stop should prevent that from happening as long as it's installed correctly and the halyard is tensioned.
It really sounds like he could use some instruction.