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Inner Forestay Mast Tang

The following article by our resident engineering expert Sailbleu is an outcome of a forum discussion on how to fit an inner forestay. Read the original thread: LINK HERE

 

After some research I decided to make a similar fix for my inner forestay as this Selden nose tang.

Sparmast has made things easy for us to install a fixing point for an inner forestay. Selden, but also Wichard sell the necessary gadgets.

With the Selden fix the mast has to be down and the mast top needs to be taken of to slide the nose tang in. Wichard on the other hand has two seperate parts that can be slided in from the outside and then bolted together.

 

First things first, make a small example of the front mast curve/bent so I can copy that to the base of the nose tang.

 

I'll start by making the base. 5mm thick SS and the small width does make it hard to get the proper curve/bent into that base. Heating it up makes it more cooperative.

 

Then hammer it down to the right angle.

 

That is that as they say in the business.

 

Cutting out the actual nose was a bit of a guesstimation, I didn't have any factory sizes.

 

After the cutting a primary cleaning up of the surface was in place, also drilling the holes.

 

Taking the angle into consideration.

 

Cutting thread, I was reluctant to use rivets.

 

Making a template of the holes so that could be easily set on the mast. No lucky drilling shots for me thank you.

 

Time to get things together. Temporary fix.

 

After obligatory checks (angle) time for some real welding.

 

Acceptable result I would say, I'm still an amateur you know.

 

Nice 24 hour bath in nitric acid to eliminate any iron residues.

 

Once arrived at the mast I first checked the curve/bent. I could live with this result.

 

Marking the drillholes.

 

The top mast had to come off to slide the nosetang in.Before screwing in the bolts I made sure to squeeze some Tec7 between the base and the inside of the mast so no Alu/SS contact was possible.

 

Voilà (sorry for the French Malcolm ;-) ) my mast has gained a shiny tiny nose.

 

Leaves me to get a proper stay, but what's more important, finding out on how to make a solid deckfix for the innerstay.

 

Kind regards - Sailbleu

 

UPDATE - Sailbleu shows HERE how he reinforced the foredeck to complete second forestay installation.