I attended the Annapolis Sailboat show 2 weeks ago, WOW. This was my first boat show and I sure picked a good one.
Noticed a nice gadget that attaches horizontally to the top of the mast. It is a fibreglass or carbon fibre rod about 3 ft long and is bowed then attached to the backstay, pulling the backstay aft. Seems to be the solution for light air mainsail hangups. Is this class legal?
BACKSTAY LIFTER
Moderators: Tim Bosma, Tom Elsen
BACKSTAY LIFTER
Stef
Odyssey #146
Odyssey #146
Re: rod
22' is a little long, we use a 30" tapered flat batten.dave wrote:The "rod" type of backstay lifting batten is what I suggested a while back. I got 22' of it a couple of weeks ago.
Dave
The use of a backstay lifter (or flicker) is part of the allowed change from a wire pinch-type backstay to a spectra line backstay with a cascading tensioning system. If you would like an Excel file about how Hot Tamale made the change over, please e-mail me.
Re: length
Of course I jest. I will jot you down as a source for when we need a replacement.dave wrote:You jest, me thinks. It comes in a 22' roll. Being a sailmaker/sailboat rigger, I will use it eventually!
Dave
rod
Thanks. It's easy to get Carbon rod but it's WAY more exspensive and nowhere near as durable as good old fiberglass. Sometimes old tech is better than new! The glass rod ["5/16"] is so durable that it comes UPS in a 3' coil. Even at that small a diameter it has plenty of return force to lift the backstay over the top batten. As to attatchment to the mast head, I covered some ideas on how that might be done a few weeks back somewhere on the forum. Simple, cheap and light is ALWAYS better than complicated, exspensive and heavy. I'm sure that one could look around and find a cast aluminum housing with a 5/16" hole and attatchment points already molded in but it wouldn't work any better, would cost a bunch more and weigh A LOT more than two of the proper sized eye straps [small] and four screws.
Dave
Dave