Solent Stay

[Joel H.]

Originally Posted by benz

Hi Joel,
You'll need a halyard, of course--perhaps's there's one rigged for a spinnaker? You'll want to make sure the stay doesn't interfere with the furler arrangement or with flying the jib--it will make tacking the jib difficult, unless you make the new stay removeable, as with a Highfield lever. It seems like if a furler is a MUST for singlehanding, you'll only use the hank-on sails when with other people on board. Do you sail accompanied often enough to warrant the expense and trouble?

Thanks for the reply Benz.


The stay will def. be removable. I'm looking into building a tensioner using a cascade of low friction rings, (Antal), and then lead aft. The stay itself will be Dyneema and will be eye spliced to the eye of the mast fitting, (Gibbs"T-Ball" with eye). I'm also considering using a low friction ring as a halyard block also spliced to the eye of the mast fitting and down to a conventional turning block and lead aft. Hopefully, this will allow for quickly moving a pre-hanked sail into position, attaching the stay and tack, and returning to the cockpit, where it can then be tensioned and raised, all with the limited help of a autohelm or crewmember.
That's the thinking so far. The only real expense will be if I have to get my jib re-cut to make it work. That is the real question!
Cheers,
Joel H.