On a
sailing
Sailing employs the wind—acting on sails, wingsails or kites—to propel a craft on the surface of the ''water'' (sailing ship, sailboat, raft, windsurfer, or kitesurfer), on ''ice'' (iceboat) or on ''land'' ( land yacht) over a chose ...
vessel, a forestay, sometimes just called a stay, is a piece of
standing rigging which keeps a
mast
Mast, MAST or MASt may refer to:
Engineering
* Mast (sailing), a vertical spar on a sailing ship
* Flagmast, a pole for flying a flag
* Guyed mast, a structure supported by guy-wires
* Mooring mast, a structure for docking an airship
* Radio mas ...
from falling backwards. It is attached either at the very top of the mast, or in
fractional rig
A fractional rig on a sailing vessel consists of a foresail, such as a jib or genoa sail, that does not reach all the way to the top of the mast.
The forestay is a wire that secures the mast to the front of the boat. With a fractional rig, th ...
s 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.
Often a
sail
A sail is a tensile structure—which is made from fabric or other membrane materials—that uses wind power to propel sailing craft, including sailing ships, sailboats, windsurfers, ice boats, and even sail-powered land vehicles. Sails ma ...
is attached to the forestay. This sail may be a
jib or a
genoa
Genoa ( ; it, Genova ; lij, Zêna ). is the capital of the Italian region of Liguria and the sixth-largest city in Italy. In 2015, 594,733 people lived within the city's administrative limits. As of the 2011 Italian census, the Province of ...
.
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
A staysail ("stays'l") is a fore-and-aft rigged sail whose luff can be affixed to a stay running forward (and most often but not always downwards) from a mast to the deck, the bowsprit, or to another mast.
Description
Most staysails are ...
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.
See also
*
Backstay
*
Shroud (sailing)
On a sailing boat, the shrouds are pieces of standing rigging which hold the mast up from side to side. There is frequently more than one shroud on each side of the boat.
Usually a shroud will connect at the top of the mast, and additional shr ...
References
External links
*
{{Sail Types
Nautical terminology
Sailing rigs and rigging