Please Visually Inspect Your Rigging Occasionally!

[Maine Sail]

Hi All,

Yesterday on the way to race on OPB's I realized I had forgotten my gloves so I made a trip out to my boat to get them and to also photograph the "Inverter Inefficiency Post".

While standing on the dock I began to admire a beautiful older 40+ foot CCA designed boat. As usual my eyes automatically scanned the chain plates, clevis pins and turnbuckles as has become second nature.

All of a sudden I see this:

A used cotter pin bent up like a Chinese circus freak that was un-tapped and sharp a chain plate cap peeling up from the deck. I was concerned about the chain plate caps pulling up and thinking the chain plates could actually be loose?

I then began to look a little closer and saw this:

So I knocked on the hull and the owner came on deck.

"I don't want to alarm you sir but you are missing cotter pins in your turn buckles and the intermediate shrouds clevis pin has no pin in it. Also your cap shrouds cotter pin is about to fall out."

"Oh I never put pins in."

"And you're not concerned about that?"

"Should I be?"

"Well having been on a boat that lost a spar I sure would be that's why I'm mentioning it to you."

"They've been like that for a while though."

"You've been sailing without cotter pins on purpose?"

"It seems to be fine."

At this point he walks over an grabs the cap shroud which was like limp spaghetti.

"Hmmm that's pretty loose."

"Yes and my concern is that you only have about 1/4 of an inch of threads left on your turnbuckles."

"I'll have to tighten those."

I then pointed rather loudly at the clevis pin, if you can visualize that, and he actually got surprised.

"Wow I didn't know that had fallen out."


My point here guys is to bring attention to your rig. Try not to use worn out and bent cotter pins and please remember that turnbuckles will back them selves off. Those holes in the threads are not just for ventilation...


P.S. I almost said nothing because I honestly thought he was being hauled out for the season. If you notice something like this never assume. This guy was NOT getting hauled out! He is a very nice guy who I think now understands why he should have installed cotter pins and actually bent them over.. He thanked me for pointing this out and intended to fix it right away. I'm glad I actually said something...

Please visually inspect your rig every so often...

 

[sailaway78]

I have improved my inspection procedure

Mainesail,
Thanks for posting this up. After recently loosing a head stay, I have certainly changed my inspection habits. That one little cotter pin ended up costing a lot of hard labor, getting beat all to hell trying to secure things, and a lot of money to repair all the damage, which was minor compared to if I had lost a mast.
Everyone please take heed. It only takes very little time to inspect all the pins, turnbuckles and chain plates. Do it regularly.

 

[Tim R.]

2 observations

In the second photo the line going along the chainplate probably fouled with the cotter pin. The other one looks like it is ready to pop out with a good whack from the line.

Also, he is fortunate that these clevis pins are installed the way they are. When the boat is heeled and the shrouds are loose, gravity helps to keep them in place.

He should probably secure the clevis pins with snap rings and a few wraps of rigging tape. It would also be a good idea to reroute both of these lines to avoid contact with these rigging components.

This is especially scarey as I have raced against this boat so he does sail it in close quarters with other boats. If that rig came down onto another boat, really bads things could have resulted.

 

[Don S/V ILLusion]

This might be a good opportunity to remind folks to check the forestay hardware. Although not as obvious as the shroud hardware and often not easily accessible, we had two separate incidents this year, on my dock alone, of boats losing headstays due to improper inspection and maintenance of the fittings at or below the furler drum. W all know, by virtue of it's location at the pointy end, that this hardware is far more likely to fail due to corrosion and/or vibration but in each of the two cases I mentioned, the owner never bothered to inspect there because it wasn't easy.

 

[Maine Sail]

Good point Don!

This might be a good opportunity to remind folks to check the forestay hardware. Although not as obvious as the shroud hardware and often not easily accessible, we had two separate incidents this year, on my dock alone, of boats losing headstays due to improper inspection and maintenance of the fittings at or below the furler drum. W all know, by virtue of it's location at the pointy end, that this hardware is far more likely to fail due to corrosion and/or vibration but in each of the two cases I mentioned, the owner never bothered to inspect there because it wasn't easy.

I agree and that's one feature of our Harken furler I really like.

Step 1:

Step 2:

Step 3 Lift Drum & Inspect:

 

[Rick D]

Second Don...

Don: Karl's 40.5 had a headstay come adrift this year too... the cotter pin came out. Good call to check them.

BTW, after a new stick and re-rig on my O'Day 27, I was going to the head & looking out the port hatch, when I noticed... the shroud swinging in the wind on my starboard tack. I took my Leatherman tool out, took the phillips bit out and stick it in until I could get out and around. CLOSE call, and why I recommend people also check shouds carefully after any re-rigging. That is the second time that happened after rigging work! Rick D.

 

[Scott B]

Re: Second Don...

Funny, ( or not so funny ) I was sitting on the bow enjoying a pre-dinner brew after sailing for several hours to a favorite anchorage and dropping the hook. I usually scan/study the boat and especially the rigging to learn more and see how it all is connected. I noticed that the cotter pin through the forestay pin had not been split or bent over. This had been rigged by the Hunter dealer just last year and I had a false sence of security. Showed me that I shouldn't take for granted that even the dealer would get it right. I had a real good look around after that at all the pins and hardware.

 

[Seattle Scott]

Mainsail, that is amazing. On a side issue, is the better practice to have the clevis pins inserted outboard to inboard, so the cotter pins are inboard, and more visable?

 

[dvideohd]

what are some good sources....

to learn more about rigging maintenance????

(Fabulous Pics... )

**************

for those of us with old boards - and who worry about corrosion - and maintainence.. I can see the part about making sure the rigging is tight - that the parts are all on right...

but what about the deeper aspects? where do you go and learn? If that piece of Stainless is a bit GREEN - does it matter? Green isn't rust, after all...

when do you know to change out the rigging (preferrably before it falls on your head when you are 10 miles off shore in the middle of shipping lanes... )

any good books? DVDs??

that part of maintainence is not so clear to me...

--jerry

(NO - I can't spell! that is what Abbrev. are for!!!)

 

[Maine Sail]

Also..

Mainsail, that is amazing. On a side issue, is the better practice to have the clevis pins inserted outboard to inboard, so the cotter pins are inboard, and more visable?

Also on most boats genny lines run outboard of the chain plates and can get hooked on the cotter pins especially if un-taped if they go from inboard to outboard..

 

[RAD]

Inspection

At the beginning of the season I found a cotter ring on the deck and started looking all over to see where did this come from, turns out to be from a lifeline end but thought about whats going on upstairs so this fall when I get hauled I plan on bringing the bucket truck I own down to inspect all the fittings at the top and replace the tril/anchor light bulbs with LED and this weekend I'll give every thing at the deck a look over
As always great advice Maine Sail

 

[JohnS]

This had been rigged by the Hunter dealer just last year and I had a false sence of security. Showed me that I shouldn't take for granted that even the dealer would get it right.

That is definitely a bad assumption. One Catalina dealer I used to work for got frustrated with me because I took my time to do things right and frequently refused orders to do what I deemed unsafe. One time I caved when they insisted I deliver a boat on it's cradle to their marina, even though the cradle was too small for the trailer. Half way there, the cradle shifted and fell, punching two major holes in the hull. Luckily it didn't spill onto the highway. Another time, they had a used boat on the lot that came in with a new bare mast extrusion, but no shrouds, no spreaders, nothing. There was a big sale coming up and they wanted to be able to display it with a mast up. So get this. The service manager (and the vice prez of the company backed him up) wanted me to just tape the spreaders, shrouds, masthead, etc., onto the extrusion and step it. Like hell I will. They were serious. I left shortly after that.

When you take delivery of a brand new boat, you should at a minimum perform a safety survey looking for any shortsightedness that might risk your life. Seriously. The above dealer never killed anyone from their negligence (that I'm aware of), but it wasn't because of due diligence. The manufacturers of mass produced boats send them to the dealers for final assembly, and they can't guarantee the quality of service at all their dealers.

(BTW, I understand this dealer no longer sells new Catalinas. It was many years ago and they hopefully have improved, so I won't name names.)

 

[Don12364]

And then there was my chum. He always kept a pocket full of used cotter pins and during the last five minutes before a race start he would pass close by and throw one into your cockpit. The mayhem caused when someone spotted the pin usually ensured he had a better start than ME!:dance: B*****d.

 

[Scott B]

John, this is from one of the larger Hunter dealers with a very good reputation, IMHO. One of the reasons I went through them was the fact that they put these together all the time and would know their stuff. Kinda drove home that even someone knowledgable could miss something.

 

[frank balcer]

Thanks

Thanks Mainsail for the reminder. I consider myself somewhat anal as to the condition of my gear but as i was reading this i thought that in the last two weeks i have sailed 4 times and not once looked at my cotter pins. I am heading to the boat in a few minutes for a sunset sail and I will take a few minutes to check everything out before i depart. Thanks again...... frank