Connecting mast with CDI fuller to front of boat

Jan 4, 2015
16
macgregor 26m lake tahoe and Santa Cruz
Our 26M has been with mast down for months and when we went to step it, the built in forestay won't reach to the connection. We added 2 screw lock carribiners we got at West Marine as extensions. They are rated to about 600 pounds. Not sure if the forestay is bent, or if the mast isn't all the way up, or the tabernacle is the problem. Any ideas and suggestions?
 

walt

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Jun 1, 2007
3,511
Macgregor 26S Hobie TI Ridgway Colorado
600 pounds is under the 1/8 inch cable (stock forestay size on that boat) breaking strength of just under 1600 pounds.. Could be marginal.. However, the extension is likely not the way to solve your problem. If nothing was changed since the mast came down.. something is probably not right like a kink somewhere. Or the bottom of the mast is sitting on top of a line or wire that should not be there. It doesnt take much under the bottom of the mast to cause a problem.

https://www.ronstan.us/marine5/wireloadspecs-comparisontable.asp
 
Jan 4, 2015
16
macgregor 26m lake tahoe and Santa Cruz
Thanks for the input. I think the forestay wire is a bit kinked from the transporting. We've always had a challenge getting it to fit but the problem got worse this time. I'm also not sure the mast isn't 90 degrees to the boat. And another issue is that the mast doesn't seem to articulate much so we have to move it manually. I appreciate your chart--I've been dismasted offshore racing before and had to call cos guard in a larger boat and never want to have that experience again.
 
Jan 4, 2015
16
macgregor 26m lake tahoe and Santa Cruz
Thanks for the input. I talked to blue water and ordered new pins and solved the problem. Here is what we did. We checked rigging and shrouds and the under shrouds were loose and outer tight. So we loosened up the outside shrouds and put our winch back on and were able to get it to fit in. What I was told was 1" of shroud loosening equaled 5" of forestay. Now my topping life
is under load rather than loose. And we
Bought the new forestay pin which works better. And we added the no-lose wire.
Next step for us was adding stern seats which was kind of a pain since our fingers were not long enough to hold the nuts inside the transom. On to a spinnaker!