Adjustable back stay and the over crowded cleat

[Project_Mayhem]

When I bought my C30, the backstay adjuster assembly was attached to the open turnbuckle. That didn't seem like a great idea so I moved it to the cleat a foot away. Now with that, a permanently attached dock line (for docks that aren't mine) and my slip's dock line, it's quite crowded and difficult to remove my slip's dock line. My dock line has a loop in the end. I put it through the middle of the cleat and then over one horn. I've never had this method come undone in a storm.

The backstay adjuster is attached to the cleat with a shackle. I'm very concious of having a dockline pressed up against this shackle as it puts wear and tear on the whole rig as the boat moves in the slip.

Where do you attach your's to the boat? I always dock on the port side so as I type this, I think the first change would be to move that to starboard.

Perhaps splice or attach the permanent dockline to the cleat with a smaller diameter dyneema?

At this point, I'm typing out loud but would love to hear from others that have ran into this issue

 

[Stu Jackson]

My backstay adjuster is actually a simple vang assembly of block and the lower one has a cam cleat built into it.

 

[Davidasailor26]

A picture might help. From your description I presume you’re talking about the anchor point for the lower block itself, not the tail of the line. If that’s the case I’d assume the turnbuckle would be an ok place. If the turnbuckle seemed to be putting weird side forces on the block or shackle then you could try a dyneema loop to connect the two and give some room for play.

 

[Stu Jackson]

I presume you’re talking about the anchor point for the lower block itself, not the tail of the line.

Ah, I see. What I did for this was to place a long D shackle at the base of the splits and connect the block to that. I put another long D on the other side to catch the other end of the vang line. One side: vang; other side: line from top of vang to backstay adjuster down to other D shackle. Garhauer backstay adjuster. NOTE: the diagram has a slightly different adjuster, same concept. I also suggest using two turnbuckles - one at each base, instead of one at the top. Why? It's a bear to adjust the top one!!!

 

[Apex]

Look for another strong point to attach the adjuster to. Neither option of cleat or turnbuckle body is good. Stu shows dedicated chainplates for BOTH sides of the backstay adjustment system. I have similar setup on my C&C but with a 3rd point: a bale on the cockpit coming for the block and tackle to attach to.

 

[Joe]

Apex and Stu make logical points. Since it is a stay, it should be attached to the boat with some type of chain plate. Think about it for a sec and it makes total sense, isn't the backstay turnbuckle(s) attached with a chainplate?. A couple of flat tangs bolted to the transom.... see stu's pic. Easy, quick safe solution.

 

[Project_Mayhem]

Today I tackled the back stay. The yard had the lower wire ropes twisted around and I redid the whole backstay adjuster setup. First and foremost, the stays were too loose I believe. I tightened them up. The mast is stable without the adjuster. It takes very little effort to pull the upper adjuster sheaves down, even without the mechanical advantage of the blocks. It's a pretty light load so I'm not worried about connecting it to a cleat. I'm a bit hesitant to attach it to a turnbuckle but I think it'd likely be fine. I believe the proper setup for this configuration is just like it is in Stu's post. One line to each cleat or chainplate. Since I rarely use the backstay adjuster, I put both on the cleat that rarely gets used. I now only have two lines on the port side cleat, an old stretched out 3/8 one for other docks and the one that's attached to my slip. The cleat still isn't easy to get to when docking but fewer lines and shackles will make things significantly easier. I want to make sure that lines can be quickly removed if the wind picks up while I'm preparing to leave the slip. The other day I pulled two lines off and as I was walking to remove the stern line, the wind picked up. I had to fend off the boat next to me, pull the stern line off and immediately hit the throttle harder than normal to avoid a repeat event