Foreguy: Two-Part

I like a double-ended foreguy, and here’s how I rigged mine. I start with two stand-up blocks on the foredeck, about 4’ back from the headstay. This is far enough back so that the jib can be rolled forward if you will be raising it on a different side from which it was dropped.

My foreguy runs from one of these blocks, up to a single block near the tip of the pole (attached with a Tylaska snap-shackle), down to the other block just next to it, across the deck and aft at roughly a 45 degree angle out to the rail. Conveniently, I have a life-line stanchion at about this place, and use it as a turning block. The line then runs down the “gutter” between the rail and the lifeline stanchions until it gets to a place that is roughly outside of the middle of the “winch island”.

At this point I have a turning block mounted on the deck. The line passes through that block, and then through a hole I’ve drilled in the outside of the winch island, about 1” above the deck level. The line runs through that hole to a jam-cleat mounted on the under-inside of the winch island. As such, the foreguy can be adjusted from the same location as where the afterguy will be adjusted. Or, of course, it can be adjusted by the crew on the other side of the boat.

It will help to mount a short “rubbing strake” above the jam cleat, to prevent marring the wood or varnish as the foreguy is adjusted.