Does anyone have experience with installing a back stay adjuster on thier split back stay. I was planning on putting on some wire blocks and a using a main sheet style pully system for adjustment. Is this a good idea or should I be investing in a pump?
- Status
- Not open for further replies.
D
Don Baker
backstay adjuster
A mainsheet adjuster sounds like a bad idea the forces that are exerted on a tall rig like you have, especially going down wind would be too much for a mainsheet system stick with standing rigging adjustment systems
A mainsheet adjuster sounds like a bad idea the forces that are exerted on a tall rig like you have, especially going down wind would be too much for a mainsheet system stick with standing rigging adjustment systems
J
Justin Meddock
Split backstay
On my last boat,(an S2 7.9) I had a split backstay adjuster, much as you describe. The split wires were 7X7 wire that is more flexible than 1X19. I do not know if more flexible wire in the bridle is a must but I would check with a rigger or with the supplier for the tackle you use. The function is pretty good and more importantly, to me,I bet the whole install will be hundreds less and owner-serviceable (Vs. sending off for hydraulic rebuilds) Justin Meddock
On my last boat,(an S2 7.9) I had a split backstay adjuster, much as you describe. The split wires were 7X7 wire that is more flexible than 1X19. I do not know if more flexible wire in the bridle is a must but I would check with a rigger or with the supplier for the tackle you use. The function is pretty good and more importantly, to me,I bet the whole install will be hundreds less and owner-serviceable (Vs. sending off for hydraulic rebuilds) Justin Meddock
T
Thad
Check the archives
Mr. Cherubinni wrote some articles back in December about some of the different models - In a forum discussion about the H-30, we asked him about performance tuning. He said his father would have installed a backstay adjuster if he could have, and suggested retrofitting one to these boats - particularly, the H-27 & H-30.
Mr. Cherubinni wrote some articles back in December about some of the different models - In a forum discussion about the H-30, we asked him about performance tuning. He said his father would have installed a backstay adjuster if he could have, and suggested retrofitting one to these boats - particularly, the H-27 & H-30.
K
Ken Palmer
My backstay adjuster
Liberty is a 1981 H33. I had thought that all the H33's had a backstay adjuster installed. Guess not. There are a couple blocks mounted at the split. Running through those blocks is another set, very similar to the boom vang. One end is attached to a pad-eye on the port side, the other by a pad-eye on the starboard. When the free end of the line is pulled, it forces the block combo at the split to pull down, pulling back the top of the mast. I'm sorry I have worded this so poorly, and I'm sure I made a mistake or two in the description. It is so much easier when you have the stuff in front of you! If you are still looking for help in April, I'll take some images and send them to you after Liberty is launched and rigged. Ken Palmer, S/V Liberty http://www.LakeOntarioSailing.com/
Liberty is a 1981 H33. I had thought that all the H33's had a backstay adjuster installed. Guess not. There are a couple blocks mounted at the split. Running through those blocks is another set, very similar to the boom vang. One end is attached to a pad-eye on the port side, the other by a pad-eye on the starboard. When the free end of the line is pulled, it forces the block combo at the split to pull down, pulling back the top of the mast. I'm sorry I have worded this so poorly, and I'm sure I made a mistake or two in the description. It is so much easier when you have the stuff in front of you! If you are still looking for help in April, I'll take some images and send them to you after Liberty is launched and rigged. Ken Palmer, S/V Liberty http://www.LakeOntarioSailing.com/
Backstay adjuster
Thad has a good memory! LOL Those archives'll be good for something! I highly recommend the use of a backstay adjuster, but with a caveat– we are NOT talking about REPLACING the standing backstay at all. In fact the standing backstay ought to be kept at least to a safety tension in spite of the adjuster. What the adjuster does is to put a bend into the mast, which some people want for sail shape, especially to flatten the middle of the main. Pulling the masthead back will arc the mast forward at about the spreaders or a little above. If the shoruds are kept to tension the forestay gets a little tighter and will stiffen out the genny as well. If you look closely (and even not so closely) you will see J-24s and J-27s sitting even at anchor showing incredible mast bend-- the masthead being like 24 inches back or even more. The spar looks like a banana. For years this was thought to be a dinghy trick, as on the Thistle, but those Star sailors showed us what it can do for a moderate-displacement keelboat as well. Thad refers to my mentioning that on Antigone we had a very simple backstay adjuster. The backstay split at what we called the 'fish plate' at about 10 ft off the deck, and then there was a double plate with five pulley wheels in it straddling the two lower legs of the stay about a foot below the fish plate at rest. One sheave of the pulley block was run with Kevlar line going down to a fixed eye on the starboard transom edge. The chainplates were rings through the end of the black aluminium toerail but I can't remember where we ended the line– it must have been inboard of that, to something strong (a chainplate on the transom perhaps). The port end of the line had 2- or 3-to-one purchase with a block on the other transom corner and was led forward to a cam cleat on the deck, so we could take it to the secondary winch just in case, but in practice we gave it a pretty good set and left it like that. The Raider is a very jib-powered boat and went to weather like a bat out of you-know-where so long as the headsail was well tended. We generally flew a 170 whilst racing non-spinnaker and rarely changed headsails before it got really hairy. I don't recall how much we actually bent the mast with it, but I understand the current owner of that boat still has a 1978 mainsail on it so I presume he is bending the heck out of it now! JC
Thad has a good memory! LOL Those archives'll be good for something! I highly recommend the use of a backstay adjuster, but with a caveat– we are NOT talking about REPLACING the standing backstay at all. In fact the standing backstay ought to be kept at least to a safety tension in spite of the adjuster. What the adjuster does is to put a bend into the mast, which some people want for sail shape, especially to flatten the middle of the main. Pulling the masthead back will arc the mast forward at about the spreaders or a little above. If the shoruds are kept to tension the forestay gets a little tighter and will stiffen out the genny as well. If you look closely (and even not so closely) you will see J-24s and J-27s sitting even at anchor showing incredible mast bend-- the masthead being like 24 inches back or even more. The spar looks like a banana. For years this was thought to be a dinghy trick, as on the Thistle, but those Star sailors showed us what it can do for a moderate-displacement keelboat as well. Thad refers to my mentioning that on Antigone we had a very simple backstay adjuster. The backstay split at what we called the 'fish plate' at about 10 ft off the deck, and then there was a double plate with five pulley wheels in it straddling the two lower legs of the stay about a foot below the fish plate at rest. One sheave of the pulley block was run with Kevlar line going down to a fixed eye on the starboard transom edge. The chainplates were rings through the end of the black aluminium toerail but I can't remember where we ended the line– it must have been inboard of that, to something strong (a chainplate on the transom perhaps). The port end of the line had 2- or 3-to-one purchase with a block on the other transom corner and was led forward to a cam cleat on the deck, so we could take it to the secondary winch just in case, but in practice we gave it a pretty good set and left it like that. The Raider is a very jib-powered boat and went to weather like a bat out of you-know-where so long as the headsail was well tended. We generally flew a 170 whilst racing non-spinnaker and rarely changed headsails before it got really hairy. I don't recall how much we actually bent the mast with it, but I understand the current owner of that boat still has a 1978 mainsail on it so I presume he is bending the heck out of it now! JC
- Status
- Not open for further replies.