by GreenLake » Sat May 28, 2022 2:26 pm
Sorry to hear about your mishap. (I'll add some thoughts to what Tom wrote).
The part of the mast below the tabernacle acts as a compression post. Most of the force should point down, and from your photo is looks like there is enough left of the lower part to securely rest the tabernacle on.
The secondary function is to not let the mast foot wander. Obviously important during mast raising, but you can get into situations (like choppy water) where an unsecured mast foot would jump around. Those are the reasons why you need to secure the tabernacle against being pulled out.
You won't be able to make that connection strong enough to hold up a unsecured mast on its own, but it should be a strong and reliable connection. If it looks to you like the screws pulled out cleanly, leaving enough metal for being re-tapped at an offset location, you could certainly decide to try that.
When raising the mast you should not use the main halyard, but the jib halyard. The main halyard would give you more leverage, but the upper part of the mast is unsupported. Instead, it's better to use the jib halyard (or spinnaker halyard if you have one) as these are attacked close to where the stays are attached - which is the same point at which the mast is held back by the shrouds.
That means you can pull as hard as you want on either of those two halyards without putting a bending moment on an unsupported part of your mast.
Once you have attached your forestay, the mast should be secure, even if you only have the aft pin in the tabernacle. The boat is new to you, so you don't know if the lengths of shrouds and forestay are set correctly. Ditto for the tension in the rig. You need to take the bout out on a day with moderate winds of 6-10 knots and observe. One: the leeward shroud should go slack when you go upwind in about 10 knots or above. But there should be enough tension there that you can "strum" a low note with the rigging on land.
Two: when sailing upwind at 10 knots or above there should be some weather helm, but not too much. You should have to pull on the tiller to keep your boat from rounding up into the wind. Definitely at this point, it should not at all feel like you are straining when pulling at the tiller, or that you are "fighting" the boat. The tiller should also not need a large deflection. Either of those would mean your weather helm is too strong.
On the other hand, you do want positive weather helm. When you let go of the tiller, the boat should turn into the wind. And the tiller should have given you positive feedback: you should be able to feel the strength of the wind.
This second test assumes you have your sails sheeted properly. If you don't sheet the main in, for example, you reduce its effectiveness and therefore ability to turn your boat into the wind. If you don't sheet the jib so that it draws correctly, you would reduce its ability to counteract the main. But if your sail plan is (reasonably) balanced, you should end up with a bit of weather helm.
If you don't, then your mast is at the wrong angle. Tilting it forward reduces weather helm, tilting it back would increase it. If the mast is set at a correct (or satisfactory) angle, then it may be that you won't be able to get that pin in without destroying the rig trim.
There are forestays that have a lever at the end, that allows you to connect them more easily and then you apply the final amount of tension by flipping the lever. When replacing your forestay, make sure you don't change the length, or you affect your rig trim.
~ green ~ lake ~ ~