ADJUSTABLE BACKSTAY (this is not the mainsheet)
Block on backstay, and 2 - Fiddles. Seems to bend the mast ok.
Why all the fancy hardware I see on boats at the marina?
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Is this Wrong?
- Thread starter topcat0399
- Start date
ADJUSTABLE BACKSTAY (this is not the mainsheet)
Block on backstay, and 2 - Fiddles. Seems to bend the mast ok.
Why all the fancy hardware I see on boats at the marina?
I used to have a Mac 22 with that same set up. It works but it is not a true traveler. When pointing, it is often desirable to move the point of attachment for the mainsheet to the boom to windward and then ease your boom to mid-ship in order to create twist in the sail. You won't be able to do that with this set up.
To answer you second question "why". The Macgregors were set up this way to keep cost down. Macs are great boats for the buck. They are fast, easy to repair and easy to upgrade... but they were targeting the blue collar sailor. If at some point down the line, you want to put in a traveler, it would not be hard. But it will cost money.
To answer you second question "why". The Macgregors were set up this way to keep cost down. Macs are great boats for the buck. They are fast, easy to repair and easy to upgrade... but they were targeting the blue collar sailor. If at some point down the line, you want to put in a traveler, it would not be hard. But it will cost money.
OOPS - maybe my drawing isn't clear, this is for bending the back stay.
I have a traveler on the bridge and mid boom main sheeting - not standard Mac.
I have a traveler on the bridge and mid boom main sheeting - not standard Mac.
That's a pretty standard arrangement. As the mast section gets larger, more force is required to bend the mast so the hardware becomes larger, triple blocks instead of fiddles, hydraulic backstays, and so forth.
It is not wrong, but it could be better. Not my MacGregor but another boat I have has the backstay adjuster set up like this:
The adjuster squeezes the split backstays together which takes a lot less effort than then the set up you have illustrated.
The adjuster squeezes the split backstays together which takes a lot less effort than then the set up you have illustrated.
I think there probably should be something to limit how much "OFF" you have. Both boats I had with adjustable backstays had some kind of backup system for when the backstay adjuster failed. In the squeeze system it would be the natural length of the unsqueezed backstay.
No way. I don't have a stock Mac master either, I dropped and bent that a couple of years ago.
Now I have a battleship mast I picked up on craigslist for $80 and it weighs twice as much as the
stock mast. Seems to sail fine tho...
I don't think I need to worry about that, fractional rig and I have swept spreaders
and the backstay swung loose for years....
Now that I have new sails I really mean business, really really.
My goal is to handle this boat solo in 35 knots sustained....
The problem with a block and tackle is that if it fails you loose the mast. This is why the split backstay sqeezer systems are safer.
As for the fancy fitting, for a smaller boat that would be simple to fabricate from aluminum sheet and 5 captive blocks. Splice the stay sections from Dyneema. Probably cheaper than the tackle, too, because the WLL of the tackle is less and the required purchase is less.
As for the fancy fitting, for a smaller boat that would be simple to fabricate from aluminum sheet and 5 captive blocks. Splice the stay sections from Dyneema. Probably cheaper than the tackle, too, because the WLL of the tackle is less and the required purchase is less.
This setup will not work on the mac as the boat only has a single backstay and with the motorwell, would be a bear to make it into a split solution. Far better off to stick with the original napkin design idea with some sort of preventer, so that if the whole works came apart in 35kts (which itself is a deathwish in that boat) the mast may not come off immediately.
On my Mac 26S I ordered a shorter back stay from BWY's and added a 4:1 similar to the boom vang setup. I never thought about what would happen if...
I just like having the additional control, do I really need to rethink this?
My backstay is not responsible to hold up the mast, the shrouds do that.
Its for mast bend only.
Over on the Attainable Adventure Cruising website there was an article this week on dangerous rigging mistakes. The article is behind a paywall, so you'll have to join to read it. However, the gist of the article is that when designing or modifying rigging it is wise to have a fuse, a known weak point. This way, if something goes wrong , the known weak point breaks and the rest of the rig stays up.
Rigging the backstay as @thinwater and @Cowpokee recommend provides the back up. If the adjusting blocks or the line blow out, the rig stays up because the backstay remains intact. Earlier I did not look that closely at your diagram and didn't notice that it was only the adjusting line that was supporting the mast.
Rigging the backstay as @thinwater and @Cowpokee recommend provides the back up. If the adjusting blocks or the line blow out, the rig stays up because the backstay remains intact. Earlier I did not look that closely at your diagram and didn't notice that it was only the adjusting line that was supporting the mast.
I'll watch from the shore thank you. I wouldn't put that much faith in the shrouds by themselves.
TopCat, consider going to a split lower backstay and using 2 wire blocks to squeeze them together (as in the previous post's picture and as on my Mac25). You can use all the hardware you show in your first post too. I used a cam cleat on the lower fiddle to hold the line as its pulled and it can be released quickly. You can really put too much strain on the backstay wire with this setup, so I would pull on the adjuster, and using a Loos gauge, and mark the wires where the blocks are when you are at the percent of working load you don't want to exceed (15-20percent).
