Over the years, yachtsmen have told about forestays breaking within a short time of having furling gear fitted. Our analysis on this is that there is so much combined weight in the forestay, sail and foil that, when sailing, it creates a big bending moment where the forestay wire exits at the top of the foil assembly. As a result of the continuous bending, the forestay wire finally breaks at that point.
To overcome this problem the Reef-Rite system includes a forestay top swage fitting approximately three times longer than a normal fitting. This brings the actual start of the forestay wire well down inside the foil. The bending moment now occurs on the swage, which is much stronger and capable of withstanding the bend. We believe this may extend forestay life by as much as threefold under roller furling conditions.
Secondly, because furling gear is often fitted on older boats, the age and condition of the rigging is unknown. When the Reef-Rite furling system is installed, the existing forestay is always replaced with a new one as part of the base price.
