[UnionPacific]

So I want to setup a furler for a staysail.
I have a storm staysail halyard, and a deck attachment point.
I have a few questions on this.

The first is what size wire do I need to use on the furler stay?
Must I go with the same as my headstay? bigger, smaller?
Second, what should I have backing the deck attachment?
I think right now it only has a backing plate, is the deck strong enough with just a backing plate to hold the furler wire stay?
Thank you for opinions and solid answers.

 

[celenoglu]

A backing plate is hardly enough for a storm staysail. Normally the connection point should go down to the hull. You can use the same size wire as your forestay or backstay. You should also be using shrouds from the attachment point of the stay to aft to balance the forces.

 

[killarney_sailor]

Dont' think I can comment on the backing plate since it could be just fine or not, depends on the engineering. I will comment on the idea of a furler for a storm-quality staysail. It may not furl very well at all because of the stiffness of the cloth. There are two ways you can go. You can use a separate stay or have the stay integral to the sail. The latter is easier and you do not have the stay in the way all the time, but you need to be able to get the halyard very tight. I would certainly use rope rather than wire for this. If you go with a separate stay you could use wire or rope for this but you will need two points of attachment both on the mast and on the deck - one set for the stay and one for the sail.

We have a removable inner stay (wire - it is old that is a size smaller than the headstay). We use hanked on sails here (a heavy staysail and a very heavy storm jib. We generally leave the stay not attached to the deck but brought back out of the way. It only takes a minute or so to hook it up with a Highfield lever. If we are doing a potentially nasty passage (Mauritius to Richards Bay comes to mind) we start with the stay hooked up and have a sail, in this case the storm jib, hanked on in its bag (one of those shaped for the purpose). The sheet is in the bag ready to be brought back. I suspect there are more modern solutions that are better and probably cost more.

Edit: I notice someone else mentioned support for the mast. We have Dyneema running backstays that we lead to the secondary winches if we have the staysail in use.