Hi Wilson,

I’ve been thinking about what might have “popped” at the masthead and then the forestay was looser.  There is a toggle joint where the forestay attaches to the masthead casting.  When you are trailering the boat or setting the mast up to be stepped, this toggle joint can get folded back onto itself, thus using up about 1-1/2” of forestay.  I believe your toggle joint got stuck in the folded position until quite a bit of tension was applied to the forestay and then it straightened itself out with a loud “pop”.  Checking the position of the toggle joint is something to add to your checklist.

Roger Pihlaja
S/V Dynamic Equilibrium

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From: Wilson Cook via Rhodes22-list<mailto:rhodes22-list at rhodes22.org>
Sent: Monday, October 18, 2021 7:57 AM
To: rhodes22-list at rhodes22.org<mailto:rhodes22-list at rhodes22.org>
Subject: [Rhodes22-list] First time

So I erected my mast for the first time yesterday. I hope there is a short learning curve. Took a while but I was single handed  Biggest challenge was the headstay. Took everything I had after shortening chains twice. Once it was finally up and I was tensioning backstays something “popped” at the masthead and then forestay was looser.

Related question- there is a block and tackle across the backstays but there is no cleat?

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