[Rhodes22-list] Demasting

[David Culp]

John:

>Clearly attaching the forestay in that manner was dangerously inadequate.
 That part of the deck is not reinforced to handle the loads generated by a
full jib under sail.>

A little clarification here.  The deck can certainly handle the load of a
mere jib.  I have through-bolted an eye just behind my furler for my new UPS
sail which is basically a light weight 155% genoa.  It was done correctly
with a large diameter bolt-eye with backing plate and the other attach point
is on the upper mast.  When sailing, the deck mounting takes some of the
load of the UPS but the rest is spread to the rig.  What I think you meant
to say was that the deck is not designed to take the full load of the whole
rig which is the mast, boom and all the wind forces generated by the whole
sail plan.  That I agree with, it is not intended to do that  but it speaks
to the stoutness of our decks that it was doing it in this case-until the
nut came off.  NO WAY would I ever set this rig up in that manner again.
 The only thing the forestay was accomplishing was taking enough of the load
preventing the failure of the the lower shroud which looks like it was
shouldering most of the load.  Shrouds that carry the load of the whole sail
plan should ALWAYS be attached to chain-plates.

IMO-Bill needs to bolt-seal the deck hole, get a pulpit hanger for his
anchor and use a chain-strap on the bow to re-attach the forestay.

David Culp



From: rhodes22-list-bounces at rhodes22.org [mailto:
rhodes22-list-bounces at rhodes22.org] On Behalf Of John Lock
Sent: Monday, August 16, 2010 10:53 AM
To: The Rhodes 22 Email List
Subject: Re: [Rhodes22-list] Demasting

Clearly attaching the forestay in that manner was dangerously
inadequate.  That part of the deck is not reinforced to handle the
loads generated by a full jib under sail.

Since your boat seems to have something different about the anchor
installation, you need to consider two alternatives:

1) Remove the anchor and mount it in some other fashion so the
forestay and can be attached to a bow-mounted chainplate and secured
properly.

2) Barring that, you should reinforce under the deck where the bolt
passes thru with some stiff marine plywood or a chainplate and use one
or two big, wide fender washers under the nut to spread the load out.
Even so, I'd be cautious about that solution since the deck wasn't
designed to do that.  You also have a nice hole to leak into the
forepeak and deck core... sealing will be critical.

Come to think of it... that may be why the rig failed!  Water leaking
thru that mounting hole softened the deck core and allowed the washer
and nut to be pulled straight thru.  Better check that area carefully
and repair the deck core as necessary.

Cheers!
John Lock