Adding an inner stay for a staysail on the bowsprit

[bobsummers]

Hi, I have a wood schooner with a bowsprit rigged with a bobstay, wisker stays. Sail configuration is a jib not hanked to the forestay but on its own wire with a wykham roll furling...meaning the jib is fully set or fully furled, nothing in between. The sprit is mounted into a samsom post about 3.5 feet behind the bow ending. I want to add a staysail and it "looks" as if it shojld be mounted forward of the bow end, out on the bowsprit. I am planning to do a plate through bolted on the sprit or use a line to strop the stay to the boom viA lashings. Do I need to add a second bobstay from the through bolted stay down to stem where the forestay is connected. Also if I need a second bobstay should it be connected to a different spot on the stem to spread the load?

[Ian McColgin]

Why do you want a forestaysail? Plenty of wonderful small schooners, like the Malebar II, are quite happy with main, fore, and jib. So . . .

How big is your schooner and really, why mess?

[bobsummers]

Hi Ian, on deck she is 34 ft on deck, bowsprit is about 12-13 ft. Reason for a staysail addition is to add sail area flexibility. As mention the jib is either fully set or fully furled, nothing in between. Adding reef points to the jib is not doable.....way to tough to go out on the bowsprit and tie in reefs, and the jib is not hanked on, jib has a wire stay. The Chesapeake bay can go from doldrums to 25-30+ knots due to thunder storms fairly regularly. It would be nice to furl the jib, hoist the staysail to balance out the reefed fore and main sail configuration as required. Also in the spring and fall we get crystal clear days with the winds blowing 20-30+ knots as we have had over the past several weeks where setting a smaller headsail along with a reefed main, full or reefed foresail could make for excellent sailing.

[Ian McColgin]

I see the problem but not sure you have the solution. Try furling the jib, dropping the main, and sailing on full foresail alone. You might or might not be able to tack in that configuration but you should be able to sail about 5 or 6 points on the wind just fine.

G'luck

[bobsummers]

Hi Ian, not a good solution, not sure I could offset steep chop, tides etc with just the foresail set due to low forward speed.
Anyone have a recommendation on a second bobstay with a new inner stay?

Thanks,

[Ian McColgin]

That is a rather long bow sprit. Goblin (an Alden 43') had a stick that long but about 7' stuck through the cranse and out. The foremast was about 10' back from the bow so there was an acceptable space between for the jibs to be tacked. I had two jibs that set up on Merriman roller furling - rope-pull spool at bottom, swivel at the top, separate thick luff wire. So the unit was easily rolled up. Either jib was hoisted or struck rolled up so it was like a snake. Actually quite nice and sounds like you have that.

The larger jib was a nudge over 100% total fore triangle and was a pain to tack past the forestaysail stay without partly rolling it up. The little jib with a clew that overlapped the forestaysail by a foot or so, tacked easily and in all but the lightest winds was a better sail, mainly as it was not so blown out as the big jib.

So, your rig has a proportionately longer sprit sticking out there. Does that mean that the fore mast is way up in the bow, making tacking a forestaysail to the stem impossible? Are you planning a forestaysail on some sort of merriman type furler or are you looking to dance a little way out the sprit to hank it on?

I lean towards finding a good sailmaker-rigger who can look at your measurements and engineer a correct solution.

But I also really think you should try sailing in a high wind with just the foresail. It's normal schooner stuff and you could be surprised at how well she can do.

G'luck

[benz]

If you're landing the inner stay only a foot or so from the stem, I can't imagine you'd need a second bobstay--that stay'sl won't be too shocking big. If going halfway along, I'd say consult an engineer, as there will be side loads as well as up-and-down. The schooner I've sailed a good a deal had a stay'sl on a club. Self tacked beautifully, and on windy days we'd drop the jib, double-reef the main, and reef the foresail. To help her 'round when tacking, a crew would back the stay'sl by holding the club hard over.
Ben