Solent Stay

[aphil138]

I am thinking about adding a Solent stay to my 42 foot ketch. I have a couple of questions to consider.
1. Placement at top of mast - If I place the attachment point at "someplace around" the black band, ( I believe it's less than a foot from the top) will I need additional backstay support ie. "running backstay"?
2. Is there one type of attachment point better than others - I am considering a Winchard Backstay tang. OR is it better to have something that "wraps" around the mast a little more?

Thanks
alan

[Renoir]

I had a custom fitting made that wrapped about 180 degrees around the mast with a large bolt and compression sleeve through the mast athwardships, including the usual 1/4" threaded-into-the-mast screws. Mount it as far up as possible yet so that it will not interfere with a headstay roller system.

Because you have a ketch the sail cannot reach very close to the top in that the head angle of the sail would be too narrow to be strong. Regardless, it is the almost vertical angle of the innerstay that you want for good windward performance in heavy air.

I had my stays'l built with a roach and battens and high-modulus line in the luff instead of the usual cable. The result is a sail that has a little more area than otherwise you might be able to get, The head is strong, it clears a deck stowed dinghy, and the battens are not so long so as to prevent stowing the sail on deck in a bag (yeah, the bag may be 4-5 ft long but manageable even if you leave the sail hanked on the stay). The sail "pulls" well from 10 kts of apparent wind and really works well at 25-30+ kts of wind. With the battens, like a main, you can adjust the sheeting angle, sheet tension, and halyard tension to power in lower winds or flatten and not be overpowered in 40 kts of apparent wind....that's a lot of range.

In addition, with about 15-25 kts of wind you can reach well with the stays'l AND heads'l and main and mizzen if you want. I've even used the stay'sl poled out downwind. If you want to be able to sail well to windward in a stiff breeze make sure that you can sheet the stays'l well inboard of the outer shrouds. The sail should be cut to clear the mast, anyway, for heavy weather reliability.