INVESTIGATOR 563

Hi all:

I would welcome your advice on the best (quickest and most effective) way to secure the forestay to its anchor point at the bow.

My boat came with an odd assortment of shackles and a supposedly adjustable turnbuckle which are tedious to adjust and tighten with cold fingers.

Thanks, Geoff

I use the mainsheet pulleys and the jib halyard to hoist the mast, but it also allows tensioning of the rig, so that you don't have to fiddle with screw adjusters.

I use a pelican clip to attach my jib to its furler mechanism (no adjustment). Before raising or lowering the last I loosen the back stay tension and once attached at the front re-tension the backstay. It works really well.

Investigators don't have bendy masts and so I don't touch the backstay tension when sailing. However, when bedded down for the night I will loosen the backstay to lessen the tension in the rig.

Here you can see the mainsheet used to hoist and tension the rig, and the stay adjuster for the forestay. I calculated a touch too short for the forestay, hence the long shackle. The snap shackle is the attachment for the jib. The little pulley is for the jib downhaul.

Thanks for this input folks, and your pic Ian; it is particularly helpful.

It's also interesting to see how others have made slight modifications to suit their own requiremens n terms of how they arise their masts, secure their jibs, or even use a furler or forestay.

I have had a SS brcket with roller made up and mounted on my bow area for running anchor cable over, and for using my trailer hoist line to help raise my mast; consequently my forestay mount will be different again from those described thus far. I'll post a photo here when I find a suitable one.

Chees,