| Author | Message | ||
     Deborah Davenport (Ddavenport) Rating: N/A |
Back in the late 80's, we had a 9.1 fleet of 12 on the south shore of Lake Erie, which is notorious for its nasty short chop. Almost all of us added checkstays to counter the babystay, and found the addition to be highly productive. There was a MORC measurement rule contstraint on how far aft the attachment point could be, so most of us attached on the coach roof. We attached ours to padeyes between the forward/halyard winches and halyard line clutches, and about 2" outboard of the companionway hatch track. We added a significant backing plate for the attachment padeye on the inside coachroof. For the checkstay rig, we used two doubles, one with a becket, for a 5:1 purchase. We cleated to the factory-installed vertical clam cleats on the bulkhead (those were for the guy, and obviously not in use on a beat). This proved more satisfactory - easier to release when tacking - than the first cleating solution we used, which was the bottom block on the rig being a double with a cam cleat. The problem with that solution was that sometimes crew had to strech across the coach roof to release. Alternatively, you can put an eye lead on the genoa track, and attach them there. You could add cam cleats on the cabin sides, same as the factory did for the pole downaul. The cabintop arrangement has the advantage of providing a lazy jack effect, useful when taking down the main shorthanded in a stiff breeze. The genoa track arrangement has the advantage of not requiring any additional backing plates. |
