Using fast pins on your roller furling

[peterbud]

This past year when I raised my mast I was tired of trying to get the ring in the clevis pin so I purchased the appropriate size fast pin. It was a shap putting the mast up no strugle with the furling. THe problem occured today on fourth of july when my mast came down as fast as it whent up. I was on a hard reach with about a 100% jib out. It was blowing about 15 with some higher gust. The problem was that the little ball on the pin could not take the sideward pressure that was being exerted.

I was lucky I did not break the mast or do any serious damage to the boat but i will go back to the standard clevis pin when i putthe mast back up on my 222.

 

[Joe11688]

Peter,
Did you use the press button quick release pin? I can't understand why that pin would come out like that. Last year I had my furler attached to a single tang on my bow plate and this year I removed it and installed part of a McGregor stay adjuster, which is made up of a double plate with holes in it. I had to cut it to get the right length. Actually, the toggle strap from my turnbuckle fits over this double plate, and my quick release pin fits snuggly into the toggle strap. I was using this pin before I even had the CDI Furler. I'm sorry to hear that, Peter. Did you have yours set up similar to mine, with the pin going through the toggle strap? Here's a picture of mine. Years ago I tried using a fast pin on my goose neck and it popped right out on me while I was sailing. The boom dropped down and I was fortunate to get the pin back into the goose neck. I later took that same pin and banged the small ball bearings out of it and drilled a hole through it to accommodate a ring cotter pin which I have been using to this day. It's very doubtful that a press button quick pin could have held in the goose neck because of the fact that the goose neck extrusion on the boom is made of soft cast Aluminum which has a tendency to wear out the hole. However, a push button quick pin that is functioning properly should never pull out of a Stainless Steel turnbuckle toggle strap. I would tighten the back stay a little more too, Peter. There shouldn't be that much slack in the fore stay to allow that pin to move.

Joe

 

[peterbud]

Fast pin problem

Peter,
Did you use the press button quick release pin? I can't understand why that pin would come out like that. Last year I had my furler attached to a single tang on my bow plate and this year I removed it and installed part of a McGregor stay adjuster, which is made up of a double plate with holes in it. I had to cut it to get the right length. Actually, the toggle strap from my turnbuckle fits over this double plate, and my quick release pin fits snuggly into the toggle strap. I was using this pin before I even had the CDI Furler. I'm sorry to hear that, Peter. Did you have yours set up similar to mine, with the pin going through the toggle strap? Here's a picture of mine. Years ago I tried using a fast pin on my goose neck and it popped right out on me while I was sailing. The boom dropped down and I was fortunate to get the pin back into the goose neck. I later took that same pin and banged the small ball bearings out of it and drilled a hole through it to accommodate a ring cotter pin which I have been using to this day. It's very doubtful that a press button quick pin could have held in the goose neck because of the fact that the goose neck extrusion on the boom is made of soft cast Aluminum which has a tendency to wear out the hole. However, a push button quick pin that is functioning properly should never pull out of a Stainless Steel turnbuckle toggle strap. I would tighten the back stay a little more too, Peter. There shouldn't be that much slack in the fore stay to allow that pin to move.

Joe

Joe, the pin that I was using was the with the bearing and a ring I was unable to find a pin the right lenght in your style when i went to West. With luck I will put the mast back up saturday. The only thing I need to figure out is how to keep the cast alluminun base in place while i li\ft the mast,

 

[Joe11688]

Joe, the pin that I was using was the with the bearing and a ring I was unable to find a pin the right lenght in your style when i went to West. With luck I will put the mast back up saturday. The only thing I need to figure out is how to keep the cast alluminun base in place while i li\ft the mast,

I know exactly what you mean about that extrusion. It really doesn't provide a lot of stability for the mast. At some point in time you're going to have to replace it with a stainless steel hinge like I did. I would even put a block under the lower plate a add the utility plate with the lower hinge. That way you won't have to shorten your stays or replace them. For now, you could take the fast pin and bang the ball bearings out of it and drill it for another cotter ring and it will work for you. That's what I did to the fast pin that came off my goose neck fitting on my boom years ago while I was sailing. I'm still using it to this day. The only thing you can do is stand next to the mast and guide it up as you pull on the rope to the blocks for your Gin Pole. Good luck with that Peter.
Joe