Staysail on a TH

[steve]

Hi Daniel,

The photos below show the Solent stay at the bow and the tensioning method at the mast.

The stay (blue Dyneema) is about 400mm back from the forestay. It runs through a spare genoa halyard sheave at the masthead and back down inside the mast. It is tensioned at the base of the mast by 3mm grey Dyneema running through low friction rings, ratio 6:1.

The Solent stay and forestay get closer together as they get nearer the masthead. The sails on the Solent stay stop well short of the masthead. Therefore I don't think the stays getting closer will be a problem.

I will probably attach the Solent stay to the front of the mast in the conventional manner next time I take the mast down. I will then tension it with a Highfield lever at the bow. Attaching it to the front of the mast will halve the length of the Dyneema (reducing stretch) and take the force off the masthead sheave. I think the existing sheave is metal as it was installed for a wire halyard so should be all right in the short term.

I can use my old genoa halyard to raise the sail on the Solent stay as the roller furler on the forestay has an integral sheave at the top and its halyard returns back down to the drum.

Steve

rsz_1bow_cropped.jpg (64.8 KiB) Viewed 2705 times

rsz_1tensioning.jpg (99.04 KiB) Viewed 2705 times

[Macintechno]

Hi Steve,

Thanks a lot for those photos. I’m planning in a very similar direction just with the stay attached to the mast and then tensioned on deck level.

Did you have pictures how you attached the stainless to the stem inside? Just thinking how to get that done in that space.

Cheers,
Daniel

[steve]

Hi Daniel,

As requested, here is a photo of the attachment of the stainless bar to the stem. It is difficult to reach this area. The result is an untidy job.
The vertical fibreglass sheet is about 300mm long with a curved edge to roughly follow the curve of the stem. The sheet where visible in the photo is actually two 4mm thick sheets, with two smaller sheets of similar thickness on the far side (not visible), giving a total thickness of 16mm where the bolts penetrate it.
The sheet is bedded in thickened epoxy where it meets the stem, with thickened epoxy fillets covered by a few layers of fibreglass.

The stainless bar is also bolted to a plywood sheet just under the deck. This plywood sheet is part of the original construction on my Mark 3. It is a vertical sheet running on the boat's centreline, starting at the front of the anchor well. You can only see it if you lie on your back and get you head right up near the bow. The stainless bar has to run alongside it and can be bolted to it which should stop any movement between the bar and the deck.

Steve

[Macintechno]

Thank you Steve,

The area is a bit tricky to reach for sure.
I think it looks like a solid job though. Well done.
I’ve ripped the anchor well out and increased it in size so that type of work will be a lot easier for me as I can work from above deck.

It’s something I seriously consider and your pictures help me a lot for the planning.

Thank you again,
Cheers,
Daniel

[Macintechno]

Hey all,

Just wanted to put up a picture of my TopHat with staysail.

I got a T ball fitting attached just above the topping lift sheave. On the deck is a 2t pad eye and below deck the same. From that padeye below deck the load is transferred via M16 rigging screw to a bulkhead (18mm + 10layers of biaxial cloth and epoxy) just behind the anchor locker.

The stay itself is dyneema and tensioned with a 3:1 main sheet system.

Works a treat

Cheers,
Daniel

[RohanJ]

It is a neat set-up. I also like the prodder and the spinnaker pole system.
Rohan

[Macintechno]

Thanks Rohan. The ‘bowsprit’ is made of an old spinnaker pole that was too long for the TopHat and can carry a furling Code C. I’m quite please with how it works so far.

Cheers
Daniel

[steve]

Hi Daniel,

That looks a good setup.
Did you get any stretch in the Dyneema stay? I was a little disappointed that mine stretched a few inches when I sailed for a few hours close hauled into 20 knots. I am hoping that it was just the splices settling in. I had pre-stretched one of them between my car and a tree but could not pre-stretch the second.

Steve