I'm not the best guy to ask about the details as I haven't thought a
lot about sailboat rigs for decades. However, some thoughts:

If you use pelican hooks, they would need to be way oversize for the
wire to get enough tension. You couldn't use the lifeline type.
There would also need to be a turnbuckle ahead of the hook to get
everything to come out right. You might have to have custom fittings
made up which would be expensive.

A better arrangement would probably be to make the tackles part of the
backstay arrangement and use and oversize snap schackle at the bottom
end. A tackle is a better thing to have flopping around on the end of
the wire during the transition than a pelican hook and turnbuckle.
The aft fitting could then be a wire pendant long enough that the snap
shackle would just come to the right place when the stay was brought
aft. This would speed the switch by eliminating the need to feed lots
of line through the tackle to lengthen it as well as keeping a long
coil near the backstay all the time. In the aft position, the tackle
would end up high off the deck but it might work out that the boom
contacted the line if it hit the back stay which would be kinder on it
than fetching up on wire.

If the whole thing is more than you want flopping around loose, you
could take a line from the bottom block back through a snatch block
near the aft tackle. Pop the snap shackle, haul away smartly, and
secure. Then bring the aft pendant up to the snap shackle, attach,
tension the backstay, and cast off the preventer.

I remember the running backstays being brought aft on a 135 foot
schooner and set up. There were about 10 people hanging on them as
the slack whipped them around and jerked the whole crowd off their
feet before the tackles could get enough tension on them. Exciting.

--

Roger Long



"Len" wrote in message
...
Roger,

Thanks for your clear and bull's-eye-answer...

Any ideas about the way I could mount the backstays in the fixed
position (the "more complex arrangement" you mentioned) ?

The only alternative for a pelican hook I can think of is a
backstay-tensioner. Can you point me to other possible solutions
that
will allow me to change positions without the use of wrenches and
such?

How would you feel about using a 10 mm dyneema line? suited for both
positions?

Thanks, Len.


On Sun, 05 Mar 2006 11:07:49 GMT, "Roger Long"
wrote:

Consider this idea that I drew on a couple of boats years ago when I
was a yacht designer:

Make the back stays fixed and running just as far back as you can
live
with on a broad reach. For a smaller boats, you could end them in
large pelican hooks that would let you tension them the way lifeline
gates work. The wire weight of a 50 footer might dictate a more
complex arrangement.

Then provide tackles back in the normal running back stay location.

The forward position is basically storage for when you don't need a
lot of backstay support. In most conditions, there will be enough
tension to damp out mast pumping and tension the inner stay. On a
long downwind run, you can just release the leeward stay. When you
need significant aft support, hook the backstay into the tackle and
set it up.

Most of the time this will probably end up being just a fixed
backstay
rig but you'll have the extra support when you need it.