Cracked headstay fitting

[MooseDriver78]

Welp! Went in for bottom paint and decided to do a rig inspection and they found a cracked headstay fitting. Glad this was found, but not happy with the repair bill...$3,000! New headstay fitting is $425 from catalina direct, the rest is all labor. Guess I'll put off a new jib until next year

[waughoo]

I have often wondered how much that weld actually does there.  It seems most of the load is at the stem bolts.

[MooseDriver78]

apparently some load on the weld...boatyard said they see this a lot on Catalinas for what thats worth

[Ed Shankle]

I took mine off for a reweld 2 yrs ago, had the same crack. It was in the spring and the mast was off for the winter, so timing was good to do it. A bit of boat yoga to to take it off and put it back on, but doable by one person. I don't remember the price, but it was inexpensive. Look for a local welder.
Good luck,
Ed

[waughoo]

Good suggestion Ed.  A temporary forestay could be rigged with a halyard too in the event the rig needed to stay up.

[Jim Hardesty]

Good suggestion Ed.  A temporary forestay could be rigged with a halyard too in the event the rig needed to stay up.

I agree.  FWIW with both fore and aft shrouds the mast will stay up just fine without the forestay.  I need to take the forestay off to fit our travel lift so I've gotten good at doing that.  Only takes a few minutes to pull the lower pin, put the lower end in a plastic bucket then slide it to the shrouds.
Jim

[dfloeter]

It seems like I bought a replacement from Garhauer for a bit less.