Shady forestay attachment point

[davazp]

Hi!

I am doing some work on my recently bought clever 23. It has this custom A-frame to hoist and lower the mast easily, which is very clever and works great..

However, I am worried about the attachment of the forestay to the hull, through the A-frame.

My concern is the tilted screw. Here are some pictures:

Should I do something about it? and any suggestions to make it more robust?

Ideally there would be an extra “leg” from the A-frame toward the sheave to prevent the torque.

There are two potential attachments to the hull close. But I don’t think the forestay is long enough now to reach it.

Thanks in advance!

David.

[Rob_Listo]

Hi David

I think you are right worrying about this construction. Remove the A frame and have a ‘leg’ welded.

The attachment points in the strip on deck are for attaching the jib.

Gr Rob

[Frank]

Maybe the connection shouldn’t be side-to-side, but above each other. In that case you could use a shackle like this:

[davazp]

Thanks for the ideas!

If the turnbuckle can absorb the extra length, a shackle would be a simple solution indeed. I’m going to be away a few days of the boat. But I’ll measure it when I’m back.

I would prefer postponing more complicated solutions for now and focus on going sailing as much as possible this year.

From the reading I’ve done, it seems the shear breaking strength of a M8 stainless steel screw should be 700-1000+ kgf. And I was told, if the nuts are tight, (doesn’t look in the picture too much though), the friction could also help the parts act as a single piece.

Another option I’m considering is adding a backup Dyneema line to prevent the mast from falling in case of failure, assuming it can handle the shock load.

[Frank]

I’d expect the weld on the already bended strip to fail before the bolt shears. Also an idea would be to make use of two dyneema lines around the complete bar.