Shorter turbuckles

[Mougly]

Hello all

I am wondering if there are any short turnbuckles out there foe 1/8" stays, my turnbuckles do not have enough adjustment left as the mast was shortened by 3/4" at some point. I thought about adding a plate under the mast foot, or to change all the rigging which will be much more expensive. so I also thought about just changing the turnbuckles if I could find shorter ones than what I have now....any thoughts would be greatly appreciated.


cheers

 

[Prime Time]

Options

What kind of fitting is on the end of your stays? Could you cut the wire and use a mechanical fitting like the stalok, norseman, suncor etc....

 

[BroadReach]

are you SURE

that somebody cut 8" off the top of the mast ??

Sounds to me that somebody re-adjusted the mast rake and ran out of purchase on the side stay turnbuckles.
What size of head sail are you using ??
In your class the head stay has a set length from the designer: most probably for a 100 or a 110 jib.
Have you checked that.

If your sailing a 140 or a 155 in order to get rid of weather helm the mast must be raked aft. To do so, it is not uncommon to the replace just the headstay and not the sides. Bet if you look you will see that the head stay turnbuckle has a "comfortable" (ie. room for more adjustments) amount of purchase

Do some more detailed checking before jumping off the table.

Broad Reach
Pensacola, Fl

 

[Joe]

First....... take the previous poster's advice about making sure you really need a shorter forestay.... then if you're satisfied:

The cheapest way to go would be to remove the forestay, take it to a rigging shop and have them cut the stud off and then swege on a new threaded stud. This will shorten your forestay the length of the swege collar.. may be an inch or two. If you're worried about it being too short, have them swege on an extra long stud. Or you can go buy a sta-lock - norseman fitting and do it yourself. Call a local rigging shop... or check westmarine's rigging service to get a quote. The part should be 15-20 bucks plus whatever they charge to cut the wire and swege on the new stud.

http://apsltd.com/c-1337-studs.aspx

 

[Mougly]

BroadReach .... the mast was cut 3/4'' not 8" and that was cut off the bottom, as for the other details, the front stay was adjusted to allow for the deference in length, but the back
back stay only has another 3/8" adjustment left, the outer shrouds are also running out of room for adjustment.

 

[Allan12210]

When you say you are running out of adjustment, does that mean that the threaded studs are meeting in the middle of the turnbuckle barrel? If so, are there still some threads showing outside the turnbuckle? This might be too simple of a suggestion, but could you cut some of the end of one or both studs to enable more adjustment?

 

[Hermit Scott]

The mechanical fittings for each stay would cost you like $25 a piece. They are simple to put on, once you do it once, and you can reuse them when you change out your rigging.

 

[Hermit Scott]

http://riggingonly.com/himod.htm
These are the one's I used becuase you can reuse the cone on the inside. Others ou have to replace the cone at $8 or $10 each.

 

[shemandr]

As I've posted before the state of running out of adjustment on the shroud turnbuckles or other stays may indicate collapse of the mast step. This can occur in either a deck stepped mast or keel stepped. It's worth a look before making new shrouds. I learned this from personal experience.

 

[Hermit Scott]

The cheapest thing you could do is add a piece of aluminum unde the mast to raise it back to where it was. It is probably the best solution also.

 

[Mougly]

The cheapest thing you could do is add a piece of aluminum unde the mast to raise it back to where it was. It is probably the best solution also.

I tend to agree, my only concern with that is that it may make it easier for water to get into the support beam, and also the possibility of stripping the screws while trying to take them out as they are flat head type with very shallow groove.

Cheers

 

[Mougly]

As I've posted before the state of running out of adjustment on the shroud turnbuckles or other stays may indicate collapse of the mast step. This can occur in either a deck stepped mast or keel stepped. It's worth a look before making new shrouds. I learned this from personal experience.

Thanks for the post but as mentioned above I found out that the mast was cut at the foot by 3/4" not sure why.

As for cutting down the threads that will not help.

 

[Hermit Scott]

I just pulled the boom. It was on there for 30 years and corroded completely. I used an electric impact gun to unscrew the screws. Some of the heads broke off but I was able to grab them with vice grips and unscrew them out after that. If there is corrosion a screwdirver will just mess up the slot like you suspect it will.
I used a 4-1/2" flap disc sander to remove most of the corrosion and hand sanded and wire wheeled the tight radii. It's at the powder coater right now. It will be 'marine silver'.
An impact is the way to go to remove them. They sell them pretty cheap now and are very handy.

 

[Ron20324]

Can you get a tap and die set and thread the stud parts any further? Don't know what it looks like, so not sure if there's enough metal there to thread any farther?

Hermit, you sure know how to hijack a thread.:naughty:

 

[Hermit Scott]

Can you get a tap and die set and thread the stud parts any further? Don't know what it looks like, so not sure if there's enough metal there to thread any farther?

Hermit, you sure know how to hijack a thread.:naughty:

Thanks!

 

[Hermit Scott]

I am demonstrating how to remove old corroded stainless screws and bolts in aluminum, with pictures. I don't see how that is not relevant. Do you?

 

[Ron20324]

I am demonstrating how to remove old corroded stainless screws and bolts in aluminum, with pictures. I don't see how that is not relevant. Do you?

I don't see how it IS relevant to the thread. Like i said...

 

[Hermit Scott]

I tend to agree, my only concern with that is that it may make it easier for water to get into the support beam, and also the possibility of stripping the screws while trying to take them out as they are flat head type with very shallow groove.

Cheers

Maybe you missed this post Ron. Your posts are starting to look similar to 'guest' posts. There is one 'guest' on here that is antagonistic.
I would really appriciate it if you would ease up off my stern.

 

[Mougly]

No room for threading.

I do appreciate all the comments and suggestion, although I was hopping to find out if shorter turn buckles were available....
Any thoughts on that?

 

[Allan12210]

So it seems then that you are running out of thread even before the ends meet in the middle of the barrel hence your question about a shorter barrel. I hunted around the various turnbuckle suppliers. Ronstan and Johnson are the two biggies. You can look on their websites to see if the barrels they sell for 1/8" wire are any shorter than yours. Ronstan has a closed body barrel that might be shorter and allow you to pull the rigging tight before runnng out of thread. Make sure the thread is the same as yours. You will probably have to buy yourself a thread pitch gauge to check. Should be availaible at a hardware store. Otherwise, nothing comes to mind. Good luck.

http://www.ronstan.us/marine5/saturnbuckles.asp