Solent Stay

Solent Stay Upgrade

An inner forestay provides an effective and sailor-friendly means to set a storm jib and bring the sail force in-board, closer to the boat's center of effort. It also can be used to add more sail area on reaches and runs. The effectiveness of this sail platform at least partly explains why nearly all of the recent cruising designs are cutter rigged. I intend to retro-fit an inner forestay on Sarah before I head off-shore again. The problem with an inner-forestay retro-fit is that existing rigging normally is not set up to take pressure of the stay on an unsupported area of the mast, and requires the addition of running backstays to provide the necessary support. A Solent Stay is an inner-forestay variation where the inner-stay is attached to the mast very near the main forestay fitting (normally at the Black Band). In this arrangement the existing backstay provides the support for both the main and inner forestays, eliminating the need for runners. A Solent Stay is what I am developing for Sarah. Most of my development is based on the Inner Forestay Hal Sutphen installed on his Pearson 424, and the Solent Stay Jack & Patricia Tyler installed on their 424.

The major task required to add a Solent Stay to Sarah is fabricating and installing the deck fitting to which the bottom end of the stay will be attached. Below are copies of AutoCAD drawings of the fitting and the backing plate for the fitting. The deck fitting will be installed just aft of the on-deck anchor well. The Backing Plate will spread the upward force of the stay to the anchor well bulkhead, which will be reinforced with additional fiberglass. The deck fitting and the backing plate will be bolted together through the deck. The deck area in the way of each of these holes will be strengthened by removing the balsa core and replacing it with epoxy and glass filler.

Click on the thumbnails of the drawing to see a full sized copy, or download the deck fitting and backing plate AutoCAD files and view them with Volo View Express.

Deck Fitting

Under Deck Backing Plate

CAD drawings thanks to Jack Goodman

I intend to use a Highfield lever to attach the stay to the deck fitting. All wire connections will be mechanical (STA-LOK). I have started to develop a bill of materials for the Solent Stay below. I have specified 1/42" wire (reduced from 9/32" in my earlier specification).

Item Description	Manufacturer/Item #
SS Highfield Lever, 3/8" Wire	ABI 191544
1/4' Wire Stud Terminal, 1/2" threaded stud	STA-LOK 136-06-1/2 This terminal connects the Solent Stay wire to the Highfield Lever turnbuckle. This terminal will replace the standard swage terminal that comes with the ABI 2145CH Highfield lever, above. To the extent possible all wire fittings added to Sarah will be STA-LOKs. Dimensions below. A: 3 11/16" B: 3 3/16" C: 1/2" Update: I turned the rigging of the stay over to Mack Sails & Rigging in Stuart, FL. They preferred the Hayn Hi-Mod terminals, so that is what we used. These also non-swaged fittings, similar to STA-LOKs, of a newer design that seems to be gaining favor with many riggers.
1/4" Wire Toggle Fork Terminal, 1/2" Pin	STA-LOK 150-06 This terminal connects the Solent Stay wire to the masthead tang (Wichard 9150, below) I decided to go with a toggle fork terminal rather than the fixed terminal (134-07) I previously specified. I think this terminal will make it easier to lead the Solent Stay outboard when it is disconnected. Dimensions below. A: 2 19/32" B: 1 3/32" C: 5/8" D: 33/64" P: 1/2" Update: I turned the rigging of the stay over to Mack Sails & Rigging in Stuart, FL. They preferred the Hayn Hi-Mod terminals, so that is what we used. These also non-swaged fittings, similar to STA-LOKs, of a newer design that seems to be gaining favor with many riggers.
Halyard Block	Schaefer 704-05 This block is for the Solent Stay halyard. It is be attached to the smaller pin hole in the mast tang, below. Schaefer 78-70 The upset shackle replaces the standard shackle on the block as show to allow attachment to the Wichard 9150 tang. Update: The upset shackel is not deep enough to fit the Wichard 9150, below. I ended up using two D-shackles.
Halyard Block Mast Tang	Wichard 9150 This tang provides the attachment point for the Solent Stay to the mast as well as the attachment for the halyard block. The fitting hole for the fork terminal attachment is 3/4", which is much larger than the 1/2" pin on the fork terminal (STA-LOK 150-06) specified above. Therefore I will need to use a bushing to reduce the diameter of the hole on the tang.
Storage Plate for Stay (When Not In use)	54-500 Update: I purchased this item from RigRite, but have not installed it. It is really designed to be attached to the side of Dorade box or cabin trunk, neither of which works well on Sarah.

On the right is a picture of the deck and mast fittings Jack Tyler had fabricated for Whoosh. I have decided to go with a commercially produced mast fitting (Wichard), but I can only hope my deck fitting comes out as well as Jack's.

In addition to tracking Jack Tyler's installation progress and using Hal Sutphen's installation notes, I steal ideas wherever I can find them. I've rafted with Dick and Gail Juppenlatz's Nautical 40, Caurus, for over 12 years and only last year did I notice that they have a Solent Stay. It is normally lashed to the rail, as an inner stay is more of nuisance than a help on the Chesapeake Bay. On the Bay we spend a lot more time short tacking in light winds rather than beating into 25 kts. apparent. Finally one weekend, after I started to develop the Solent Stay design for Sarah, we were rafted up in Rollins Cove. I looked up Caurus' mast. Noticed the inner stay. Stared at it for a while, then suddenly realized it was a Solent Stay. Below are some pictures I took that weekend. One more source of inspiration.

Above left is the deck fitting into which Caurus' Solent Stay is attached. There is a T-Ball fitting on the end of the stay (partially shown on the right) which is inserted and locked into this deck fitting. Then the turnbuckle on the stay must be tightened. For Sarah I have planned a Highfield Lever secured to my deck fitting with a clevis pin. I will still need to tension the stay with a turnbuckle (built into the lever). My implementation will take a little longer to set up than Dick's, but I intend to have it set up prior to each long distance cruise and stored for day sailing. So I think this will be only a minor inconvenience, and won't impede me from using this sail plan option.

On the right is a picture of the Solent Stay attachment to Caurus' mast. This looks like a T-Ball terminal on the mast. For a while I thought to use a similar fitting on Sarah. I believe the T-Ball will allow the stay to be swung out of the way without putting a hard bend on the stay cable. It should also allow the stay to be removed and re-installed without great effort (other than the trip up the mast).

In the end I went with the simplicity of the Wichard fitting, which is installed on the mast waiting for me to have the deck fitting and stay fabricated.

Sarah's Solent Stay

I didn't start work on the Solent Stay until after I moved Sarah to Fort Pierce, FL. In January of 2005 I turned all fabrication work (deck bracket and rigging) to Mack Sails/Rigging of Stuart, FL. There was a long backlog at the machine shop for the bracket fabrication and the initial work did not conform to the drawing I provided (see above). Finally by mid-March I had the deck bracket and was able to complete the installation.

Click on picture to view at full resolution

This bracket is nearly identical to the one Jack Tyler had fabricated for Whoosh (see above and Boat Modifications for Europe). It should, I used his drawings and documentation to develop my own.

I was very concerned about bolting a fitting that will come under a lot of load through the cored deck. In the past I have always drilled out the core to a larger diameter than the bolt, filled the space with thickened epoxy, then drilled the final hole through solid epoxy. I intended to do the same for this bracket; however I had great difficulty getting the through deck holes properly aligned with the above and below deck brackets. The below deck bracket determined the location of the above deck bracket as the below deck bracket must be flush against the forward bulkhead. Once I had that bracket in position with through-bolts on the bulkhead I could mark the location of the through deck holes. Unfortunately the under deck surface in this area is neither flat nor even, making it difficult to drill parallel holes for the four bolts. I was lucky to get very close with three bolts and have the fourth off by only 1/4". I wasn't too worried by these holes being precise as they were just to locate the area from which I would remove the deck core and apply the epoxy. However, I was concerned about my ability to reproduce even this close an approximation for the holes once I started to drill through the cured epoxy.

Jack and I discussed this via Skype (he and Patricia were still at St. Katherine's in London), and I learned he had the same problem, but did not consider replacing the deck core. He felt the bracket is large enough to spread the load on the deck and the real load would be transferred to the bulkhead via the under deck bracket. So there was no real danger of crushing or cracking the deck sandwich. He just wetted out the core surface in the holes with epoxy then bedded everything with a lot of compound.

I began to realize that Jack's approach was more than adequate and I was making the job more difficult than need be. I was finally convinced to use this approach when I realized my holes were close enough that with a little filing the brackets could be fitted and the whole job finished today. So I abandoned my previous approach and completed the deck bracket installation that afternoon (not without 3 or 4 trips to West Marine, of course).

The two holes just below the below deck bracket on the bulkhead were supposed to be for a backing plate on the other side. I originally drew this plate up so it would spread some of the load wider and lower on the bulkhead. I don't think it was really necessary, but why not. Unfortunately the machine shop also disregarded my drawings for this plate and put the holes in the wrong spots. I sent that back to be re-done, but instead of having them re-do it to my original drawings I thought there was an easy compromise that would just require them to drill two more holes in the plate. Unfortunately my quick check before returning the plate to the shop was not adequate. I did not realize until after I had drilled the holes in the bulkhead for the backing plate that it would not fit at the location. The bottom of the on deck anchor well interferes with this location. A plate to my original specifications would have fit. It's bad enough when I just get it wrong, it's worse when I get it right then screw it up.

I have not drilled the holes for the two upper bolts that go through the forward bulkhead (picture on right). Those go into the on deck anchor well and some fiberglass work will be require to secure those bolts. However, I am ready for Mack Sails/Rigging to return this Friday (March, 18) to complete the rigging work and take the measurements for a stay sail.

As of March 21, 2005 the Solent Stay is in place and the halyard is run. The stay is barely visible in the picture on the left.

On the right is a picture of the masthead showing the Wichard tag just below the remnants of the black band. The stay is attached with Hayn HiMod fittings. The halyard block is one of the Lewmar swivel blocks I removed from the mainsheet tackle. The halyard is 9/16" Sta-Set X, which I previously used for the primary Genoa halyard. The upset shackle I intended to use with this block did not fit on the tang. We had to use a D-Shackle instead. This may still have to be changed.

On the left is a picture of the ABI Highfield lever attached to the deck bracket.

Mack Sails of Stuart, FL made a stay sail of approximately the same size as a P424 working jib to be set on this stay. The stay sail will normally stay on deck, hanked on to the Solent Stay in a deck bag. Mack Sails also modified my old ATN Storm Jib to allow it to be hanked onto this stay.

The Staysail

In 2005 Mack Sails made the staysail as we agreed, but it turned out to be entirely too large a sail for what I intended. The sail overlaps the mast by 3 or 4', which requires it to be sheeted outside of the shrouds, limiting it to a down wind sail. That might not be so bad, except the sail is so large it doesn't represent a useful area reduction from the 135% Genoa. The Staysail is about 75% of the sail area of the Genoa. The Genoa can be furled to about 60% and still provide an effective shape. So the Staysail as made by Mack was larger than a nominally furled Genoa. Since there was no way reef or furl the Staysail to reduce its sail area, it did not provide an effective sail reduction for the Genoa.
Consequently for all my Atlantic Circle Cruise the Staysail was just a backup to the Genoa in case of failure. It spent almost the entire cruise in its deck bag. Its role was that of a backup to the Genoa in case of failure, which never happened.
The shortcomings of the Staysail was not due to poor workmanship on the part of Mack Sails. Rather I had not thought this sail through and I agreed to a design that would not meet my needs. Of course it would have been nice if Mack Sails had more experience retro-fitting Staysails on cruising yachts and could have advised me to go in a different direction.

After I returned to the Chesapeake Bay in the summer of 2007 I decided to have the Staysail recut.
In January, 2008 I turned the sail over to Clark McKinney of Quantum Sails, Solomons, MD to have the sail re-cut such that there is no overlap of the main mast.
The picture on the left shows the re-cut Staysail.

Now that I have a sail that can be an effective Staysail I have to come up with a better way to sheet it.
Because the original sail was fairly large I just sheeted it to cars on the Genoa track on the cap rail. The sheets went outside the shrouds and were controlled by the same sheet winches as used for the Genoa. That meant I could not set and trim the Staysail and the Genoa at the same time, which was irrelevant as long as the Staysail was relegated to just down wind sailing.

With the new Staysail I would like the option to set both sails on a beam reach and I need to be able to sheet the Staysail inboard for windward work. This means the sheets have to come inside the shrouds, which makes leading the sheets back to the cockpit winches difficult.
Ideally I would like to use a single sheet on the Staysail which is led down the port side of the cabin trunk, through a rope clutch to the main sheet winch on top of the coach roof. I'm just not sure how this can be done without rigging a deck boom (ala Hoyt Jib Boom) or a traveler across the top of the coachroof.

In the picture on the right I rigged a sheet with neither a deck boom or a traveler. I attached a pair of blocks to the clew of the sail. The sheet is tied to the clew (with a real set-up this would be a Becket on one of the clew blocks) run to the hand rail aft of the mast on the port side of the coach roof (this would be a car on a short Genoa track in the final configuration), back through one block on the clew to the opposite hand rail on the starboard side, then back through the second clew block to a block at the tack fitting and then aft to the trimming position on main sheet winch.
This does not appear to work. Effectively I've created an inverted V-shaped sheet on the clew. Any trimming force on the sheet will tend to pull the clew to the center line. What is needed is some way to trim the clew outboard. The deck boom or traveler could accomplish that. I might be able to fit a deck boom, but I've got enough stuff on the foredeck (dinghy, Solent stay, etc.). A traveler would have to set aft of the mast under the boom, and I don't know how that would work.
So maybe the only option is two sheets. I've got to think on this some more. I wish it were summer so the marinas would be full of rigged boats and I could roam the docks looking for ideas.