Forestay Rigging Problems

Forestay Rigging

The forestay on our boats is a very important part of the standing rigging.  In addition to giving a structure for the jib sail’s luff to be secured for better sail shape, the forestay also serves the vital function of keeping the mast from tipping over backward.  Some would call a mast tipping over backward a catastrophic mast failure.  Generally though, the mast doesn’t fail on its own… some part of the standing rig fails – and that allows the mast to fail.  What follows are a few photos that I snapped of forestay connections at the boat end of the forestay.  Notice that some folks are using rusty chains and bolts/nuts, undersized shackles (the shackle pin is much smaller than the hole in the stem fitting), bolts/nuts instead of clevis pins and cotter pins/rings; and so on.  Any of these “lash ups” could certainly lead to the mast failing…  

Of course, rust is a “dead give-away”… If you see rust, the link is weakened and will fail when you most need the link to remain sound.  So, inspect your standing rig at least annually to make sure that everything is up to “spec”……