Broken Forestay

[hunter240]

The day before I pulled my boat out my forestay broke and mast came crashing down. It broke where the wire goes into the swage at the top of the mast. Luckily nobody was on board or on the dock. The mast came mostlly straight back because of the braces on the mast. Only damage was to the remote Honda throttle and gear controls mounted on the inside ot the starboard combing & the windex.

Any ideas on where to get a new forestay? I'm thinking right here at this site.

 

[soling42]

Maybe here but I'd think you could easily find a rigger near you or just call Hunter 800-771-5556. Were there signs of previous damage or rust at the fitting and how old was it? Many of the Forestay T fittings get tweaked/bent when stepping a mast but simply get reseated and off we go waiting for the day it gets tired. Sounds like you were lucky that it didn't fail on a big day with guests aboard.

I added a simple upper fitting guide to prevent the forestay from ever twisting when being raised. Here's a pic. It's a 1/2" pvc pipe 2 hole strap pop riveted sightly down from the connection at the mast. Just a thought.

If you step the mast often(or not) and you're replacing the forestay anyway it might benefit you to allow for the length of a quick release lever at the bow. They're found at Marine rigging suppliers like CS Johnson. We added one to our old 240 and again on our 260 with excellent results. It allows just enough slack to pin the forestay and when folded into place it tensions the rig just right. Pic below.

M&K

 

[Alan]

Sorry to hear about your failure but it serves to reinforce my assertion that the forestay should be replaced on all boats every ten years. The forestay, as you found out, is the one piece of standing rigging that will bring down the mast when it fails. They usually fail without warning and the consequences can be substantial.
Another source for your forestay would be Seco South. I believe they make the original rigging for Hunter.

 

[DJN51]

Check out sesmiths forum [forestay failure] this site .I had a swivel added as his.If you've got furler takes away a lot of bending of t ball at mast.Contact Bill Fastiggi at Vermont sailing partners 802 655 7245.Will help you out.Great guy to work with.

 

[hunter240]

Thanks for all the replies. The idea of the guide and the qucik release are great.
The boat is a 98 allthough really only have had the mast up all season in a marina since 2000. However the 10 year rule is definitely warranted. My boat sits at the end of a T dock facing niorth near an opening on the marina which is exposed to the common west winds and the swells coming in and rocking the boat beam to beam. I think that is part of the cause, all the sideways motion cannot be good. Because of that I will check out the idea of a swivel.

 

[sesmith]

If a forestay breaks and a mast comes down, and there's no one in the marina ...does it still make a noise when it hits the motor?

BTW, ditto on Bill at Vermont Sailing Partners. He took good care of us when our forestay broke while sailing on Lake Champlain last summer. It DID make noise and scared the crap out of us when it fell.

Scott