Forestay, or not to forestay?

[geoffr]

Hi again:

My Investigator came with a forestay which attaches to the bow just ahead of the furling gear, from where I secure the foot of my jib.

However, in looking back at Bob's old photos of Margarita, it appears he sailed her without a forestay, and just relied on the wire luff of his jib to carry the mast.

Is this a typical setup for other Investigators?

I suppose the advantage would be that the luff was always tensioned.

Any thoughts?

[Yara50]

In some rigs, the furling jib rotates around the forestay. I personally hate this design. Much better to have a separate forestay, and if your furling jib ends up as a tangled, flapping mess, you can drop it to the deck.

[geoffr]

I agree!

I also carry a small storm sail that I can clip on to my forestay if needs be, using a spare (spinnaker) halyard to raise, and as a backup in case my furler snarls or the jib peak gets jammed around its swivel and halyard.

[Dr. Peter]

I don't have a forestay and the top of the headsail is fixed before the mast is raised. Works pretty well as long as furler mechanism can be secured.

I have occasionally thought about a smaller headsail but the conditions we have encountered so far have never been bad enough not to be solveable with the second reef in the mainsail. I have not used the third reef yet. Other alternatives are dropping the main and motorsailing on the headsail or furling the headsail and sailing on a reefed main.

I do use my spinnaker halyard as a temp forestay if standing the mast by myself.