Forestay

On a sailing vessel, a forestay, sometimes just called a stay, is a piece of standing rigging which keeps a mast from falling backwards. It is attached either at the very top of the mast, or in fractional rigs between about 1/8 and 1/4 from the top of the mast. The other end of the forestay is attached to the bow of the boat.[1][2]

1 – mainsail  2 – staysail  3 – spinnaker 
4 – hull  5 – keel  6 – rudder  7 – skeg 
8 – mast  9 – Spreader  10 – shroud 
11 – sheet  12 – boom  13 - mast 
14 – spinnaker pole  15 – backstay 
16 – forestay  17 – boom vang 

Often a sail is attached to the forestay. This sail may be a jib or a genoa.[3][4] In a cutter rig, the jib or jibs are flown from stays in front of the forestay, perhaps going from the masthead to a bowsprit. The sail on the forestay is then referred to as the staysail or stays'l.

A forestay might be made from stainless steel wire on a modern yacht, solid stainless steel rod, carbon rod, or ultra high molecular weight polyethylene (such as Spectra or Dyneema) on a high-performance racing boat, and galvanised wire or natural fibers on an older cutter or square-rigged ship.[5]

See also

References
  1. Richard O. Claus; William B. Spillman; U.S. Air Force Wright Laboratory (2000). Smart Structures and Materials: Sensory phenomena and measurement instrumentation for smart structures and materials. Intelligent Materials Forum (Mitō Kagaku Gijutsu Kyōkai): SPIE.
  2. Bo Streiffert; Dag Pike; Loris Goring (September 1994). Modern Boat Maintenance: The Complete Fiberglass Boat Manual. Sheridan House. pp. 80–. ISBN 978-0-924486-71-5.
  3. Jeremy Evans (March 2009). The Sailing Bible: The Complete Guide for All Sailors from Novice to Experienced Skipper. A&C Black. pp. 185–. ISBN 978-1-4081-0249-7.
  4. Bob Bond (1992). The Handbook of Sailing. Knopf. pp. 51–. ISBN 978-0-679-74063-6.
  5. Roger Barnes (2 January 2014). The Dinghy Cruising Companion: Tales and Advice from Sailing a Small Open Boat. A&C Black. pp. 45–. ISBN 978-1-4081-8027-3.


  • The dictionary definition of forestay at Wiktionary
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