Forestay and side stay lengths.

[rimike82]

The rigging on my boat is not factory, sorta mickey moused. Can someone please measure the fore stay from eye to eye and the side stays please.

[DaveD]

I will get you the dimensions off of mine this weekend.

[joecomet]

I sent a message yesterday saying i would measure mine today. Wouldn't you know it, when I went out with the tape it started to squal again. Maybe if stops in a few hours, I'll try again.
Joseph

[joecomet]

Here are the measurments of the shrouds ("side stay") and forestay that i promised you.
My shrouds are 13' 11" from the hole in the tang at the mast to pin in the top of the of the turnbuckle. The shroud tang is about 7" and the turnbuckle in about 6"'.
The forestay is 14' with a 7" tang at the mast and about a 4" turnbuckle that connects to the bow plate.
I would bet that there is very little standardization to these rigs because of the refits that have occured from the original. This rig fits my sails, which appear to have been made in the last ten years and are in good shape. The sailmaker is a small outfit in California, with no web site. The sail has no number, but does have a red Falcon sewn on. As I said in my boat profile, there are no ID's on the hull. From the year on the tittle, 1964, I believe the boat to be one of the last produced under MacVay's association with Paceship. He placed some sort of ID on the boats he then built under his own name.
Hope any of this helps
'Carrifran Falcon'
Joseph
Tallahassee

[rimike82]

Talk about a 2 year response time, but I have been doing a lot of traveling in the mean time and finally have time to get the boat back together.

I finally built new stays for my boat. If anyone needs the lengths, I have them. I have a 3" tang on the mast for both the side stays and the forestay.

Sizes:
The side stays are 13'9" from the pin center of the aircraft fork to the pin center of the open body turn buckle (1/3 open).
The forestay is 14'1" from the pin center of the aircraft for to the pin center of the open body turn buckle (1/3 open).

Materials:
Alexander Roberts Aircraft Forks on the upper part of the wire, P/N AF4
Alps 1/8" 1X19 316SS wire
Alexander Roberts Turnbuckle, P/N TS040808, West Marine P/N 152365

[SailorJohn]

Since there is more than one manufacturer of the Falcon the chainplate will be a tad different, ergo, the stay lengths will be slightly different.

What you want is a mast that has a bit of an aft lean to it when the boat is in the water. At least on our boat this works the best and generally speaking, I think on all boats.

How much depends a bit on the amount of lee helm and this also depends on the keel position. Sailing upwind the keel is typically straight down, on a reach it will be up slightly, and on a run it should be mostly up but depending on wind strength. In high winds one doesn't want to broach with no keel so it should be mostly down.

So, to tune the boat one has to work all the pieces including lee helm and mast rake. I'd suggest putting the boat on the trailer and adjusting the tilt until the boat is "on it's lines" then eyeball a mast rake. Run the halyard up the mast with a plum line, measure the stay lengths you need then make them up. Go for a test drive and see how she performs then adjust again. Mostly the stays should be adjustable.