Forestay breaks loose on Okbayou!
While sailing back from New
Turkey Key in Ten Thousand Islands in the Florida Everglades to Port of
the Islands, my wife noticed that the furler drum and jib were no
longer firmly attached to the boat. Luckily we were sailing
downwind. I didn't have time to take pictures during this event
because one wrong move and the mast would come down on top of us.
The first thing I did was attach the unused jib halyard to the bowspirit and tightened it up to hold the mast forward. I went below and found a couple of spare shackles and attached them to the furler drum. At this point I could temporarily remove the jib halyard so I could roll up the jib. Just to be safe I reattached the jib halyard to act as a backup forestay. The pictures below show exactly what broke. I would strongly recommend not using this tab, extending the forestay and use the more robust attachment points below.
The first thing I did was attach the unused jib halyard to the bowspirit and tightened it up to hold the mast forward. I went below and found a couple of spare shackles and attached them to the furler drum. At this point I could temporarily remove the jib halyard so I could roll up the jib. Just to be safe I reattached the jib halyard to act as a backup forestay. The pictures below show exactly what broke. I would strongly recommend not using this tab, extending the forestay and use the more robust attachment points below.