Re: The bit that holds the forestay to the bow...

I have the original stem fitting from my '72 Cal 25. I will take pictures if you are interested. It has attachments for the deck and curves over the stem and attaches with four bolts there. I'm also selling all other sailing gear from this boat as I am converting it into a special purpose river boat. Greg Murphy

I picked up a roller furler for a song by taking a short drive to Houston one day. When I returned to the Cal 28 flat top to install it, of course the drum would not fit the rig unless I replaced the head stay. I didn’t want to rely exclusively on the new roller furler and the sail’s wire stay to hold up my mast. My solution: install a pad eye just aft of the stemhead fitting (the bit that holds the forestay to the bow) I glued in spacer of plywood below the stemhead. I installed a stainless steel backing plate below the pad eye. The backing plate extended to the area below the stem head. I drilled through the pad eye mounting holes and the stem head fitting mounting holes. I bolted the pad eye, the stem head and the backing plate into one unit with stainless bolts and nuts. Basically, if the roller furling sail was going to take the rig down, it was going to have to take the whole stem out with it. Additionally, I had the safe feeling that the headstay was still up and functioning. I could take down the roller furling rig and hank on a conventional head sail. Also, the head stay was now a back up to the roller furling sail, which was taking its strain. Note: One of the advantages of the Cal 28 is that it so so far gone from its “sell-by” day and so far out of warranty that you can experiment with it a bit. I had a bit of fun with mine before selling her on to a fellow who had more time to waste than I did. George Barlow of “Knackered” of late memory. Cal 28 No. 155 Eagle Mountain Lake, Texas > On Mar 8, 2017, at 6:29 AM, 'Sailorman' sa… [at] mascom.com [Cal_Boats] <Ca… [at] yahoogroups.com> wrote: > > > I have the original stem fitting from my '72 Cal 25. I will take pictures if you are interested. It has attachments for the deck and curves over the stem and attaches with four bolts there. > > > > I'm also selling all other sailing gear from this boat as I am converting it into a special purpose river boat. > > > > Greg Murphy > > > > > > >