Hi guys sorry for posting so much as you all know i am doing my refit after just buying my boat
i started looking at putting new u-bolt and backing plate in, which is going well
then i see the pin that hold the cable to the u-bolt
see below photo all the holes in the stay must be for adjustment
but the pin is a bit on the small side is their a better way ?
Last edited by atles on Fri Mar 14, 2014 10:01 pm, edited 1 time in total.
These stay adjusters are fairly common on our boats. Yes the pin diameter is small compared to the U bolt. However the difference is the U bolt is buried in the deck, and might suffer from hidden crevice corrosion, whereas the stay adjuster is up in the air and can be easily checked. The shear strength of the pin is comparable to the tensile strength of the shroud wire.
...on my shrouds.They can be set up fairly loose on max length and adjusted in. On my recent rerigging exercise I had to soak them in oil as they were 30 plus years old but they freed up and worked fine. I've checked them twice since last year and taken a very minimal amount of stretch in the new shrouds. Not cheap but last and are good for equalizing tension.
I bought a new one to put on my new 'extra' forestay. Yes pins are small but as Ian said they are in the air so the SS is working.
Ozzie
Investigator #143 "SPRITZIG II"
The Mariner - “It’s too strange here. It doesn’t move right." ...
Enola - “Helen said that it’s only land sickness."
Waterworld (1995)
It is complicated, but the tension on the side stays (shrouds) is a combination of the athwartships tension (left and right side) and the tension caused by the forestay. This is because the shrouds are set slightly back from the line of the mast. There is enough adjustment in the stay adjusters, you do not need very fine adjustment. As I use a set of pulleys (mainsheet system relocated temporarily) to hoist the mast, at the end of the hoist the tackle can be used to tension the system, and the forestay easily shackled on.
The length of the shrouds need to satisfy two criteria:
The right length to ensure that the mast is properly vertical once the forestay is tensioned,
The lee shroud does not go too slack when the boat is healed to say 45 degrees.
Atles, i have the ss rigging screws like ozzie posted. But mine were originally 6 mm ones, i replaced the outer shrouds rigging screws with larger 8 mm which seems pretty strong, 6mm seemed a bit too lightweight, better to err on the safe side
Guys,
Note that the screws https://www.whitworths.com.au/main_item ... lutePage=1
are recommended for ballustrades. I think the reason is they are made in China or similar, and the quality control is not the same as the more expensive ones made in Australia.
This came as a surprise/shock to me a few months ago whilst de-rigging - this was a bow shackle connecting one of the two stbd stay adjusters. My guess is the constant rigging and de-rigging of the mast causes strain on these shackles - I've noticed often they jam on themselves as I raise or lower the mast.- the stays also catch on everything that protrudes from the deck - including me.
Having a heavily geared pulley system for raising the mast has helped me a lot as I can pause mid way and release all the tangles and jams. Also using wire/rubber twist ties (Bunnings) to secure stays and halyards along the mast has made things much easier and faster.
The fun never ends.
Snoop/Emrys,
Your failure highlights the modern problem of quality. Things look ok, but the material may be faulty. In the case of that shackle it looks like the tightening of the pin was too much for the material. A combination of poor tolerances- the thread on the pin is supposed to run out before you can put a serious bending moment on the loop part, and brittle material.
