On my first solo in an O'day Daysailer we were tacking and I looked up to see the starboard shroud swinging in the breeze. Brand new boat just rigged by dealer. We tried to get the sail down before the mast toppled, but it did so at the tabernacle, the weak point. We both wound up in the water. The O-ring had worked its way loose, then the clevis of course. It can happen, but if it is a new or healthy o-ring about the only way it should come out is if it was not put all the way in in the first place, which is what I figured happened here. So we motored up the Amityville channel to find the dealer standing on the dock looking at our pile of sails and mast. Being a very service oriented guy he said he could fix it in 10 minutes if we wanted to go back out. We were still shaking and soaked from the experience so we said "no thanks". That was my "initiation" to sailing in 1973.Huh? I used ring type cotter pins for decades and never saw any evidence of them working their way out. I preferred them to the jagged edges of the split cotter pins.
Yes...and all along I thought we were talking about a Hunter 285 (in the OP’sWow, it seems you had multiple things go wrong pretty much at the same time. Looks like the headstay broke (it could have been the headstay fitting that broke), then the pin came out of the backstay. I can only imagine your rig was way too loose and things just wobbled around until something broke. Might be time to get that stick off of the boat, check that it is undamaged, then if OK rewire the boat with new wire and get a professional rigger to set her up for you. If you can be there and watch and question him, then maybe you can do it yourself after that.
yeah...I thought we were talking about a Hunter 285. Photos are a Bene 35.Do you have the Beneteau or a Hunter, as per your avatar?
All rings need to be covered with self amalgamating rigging tape. That short end can of wire that sticks out be caught by a flailing sheet and pulled out. I’ve personally seen it happen.
Split rings without straight sections can be easily deformed by flailing sheets, and can be pulled out too.
in short, rings are more likely to be damaged than cotter pins, and require more frequent inspections and taping to remain safe.
I posted some photos and a description of how I found her. Is it not possible that when the backstay clevis fell out it contributed to the failure of the forestay? In big chop when the boat sinks into a traugh the forestay can become slack and when the boat bob's up out of the trough there would be great strain on the forestay?Any attempt to describe the mode of failure is pure conjecture at this time, given the paucity of information.
It's a 1990 Beneteau 35s5. Just upgraded last year. The only part of the boat that was not surveyed was the standing rigging aloft. Lesson learned! Good thing I have coverage and world class riggers here in Newport RI.Just to get a better picture of the situation here.
Yes.I posted some photos and a description of how I found her. Is it not possible that when the backstay clevis fell out it contributed to the failure of the forestay? In big chop when the boat sinks into a traugh the forestay can become slack and when the boat bob's up out of the trough there would be great strain on the forestay?
Me too, I've used them and have never had one come off or loose . I can tell you as a millwright for 40 years they are stronger then a cotter pin. They are temperd spring stainless steel and are twice as strongHuh? I used ring type cotter pins for decades and never saw any evidence of them working their way out. I preferred them to the jagged edges of the split cotter pins.