Dismasted Under Sail! Hate it when that happens . . . .

[waternwaves]

TT...... Tell us what you really think.......

Seriously,
Properly installed, any of your mentioned crimping methods are suitable for our loads, I have inspected several boats with "marine swaged" utilizing state of the art wire systems and connections, the all can fail, and All should be inspected, Which I agree with Moe, needs to be done frequently. Even I, who pretty much inspets every rig and unrig, pay to have someone else go over the big boats I have been lookin at... (there is a way to stay poor)

As a lazy owner of a CDI furler......... (hey I resemble that remark) I agree taht the “Window-Shade Convenience” is a boon and a bane...... (especially rigging single handed since I don't have the mid section of my safety lines removable....)

but I must caution you on one thing......
beware out of sight........out of mind. I would not intentionally cover any rigging, even safety lines) with vinyl unless you plan on much more frequent inspection.

Moisture gets trapped in there, and stays, with the salt.... I have had 2 failures in the last 6 years..... Inspect these frequently...

(what.... you mean I cannot sail with the wire in the water......trust me.....it is not sailing at that point......lol)

the same reason I do not tape any rigging fittings....... just too damn much moisture up here........

Anyway......I also agree with you that the normal fuler clipped to the hounds wants to kink.... and having broken strands up there before...... I now D-ring it to the top of the mast for transport......

anyway.......... keep on looking at those fittings frequently folks...

enjoy

|>

[They Theirs]

Samson Validator 12 line. Val 12 is almost twice as strong as cable, with a tiny bit more stretch. Spliced line directly to fittings on the mast to eliminate the weight of the shackles.



Forestay upgraded to marine swaged eye.



Rigging Upgraded



Shrink wrapped lifeline preventing cuts and snags



I really like having rope instead of wire for the cockpit, and the Vectran babystays ...
they just make me FEEL BETTER~!!!



Nicopress Standing Rigging?
06-20-2006, 02:04 PM
Brion Toss moderator
Hello,
Even large, and large-radius thimbles will leave you with other problems: there is, to my knowledge, no improvement in preventing crevice corrosion; the terminals are designed to approach 100% efficiency on 7x19 wire, but you will need two for anything like that on 1x19, and then you are into the tricky work of getting an even load on both sleeves; and no matter what, you still have a snaggy, ugly terminal that is no more efficient than a swage, and not a lot cheaper. You can certainly use them, but I see them as being the wrong tool for this job.
Fair leads,

Sketch Book Nicopress Terminals

Let’s Talk Terminals

Another method is the NICOPRESS fitting, a patented method which uses a sleeve wrapped around the wire forming an eye, and gripping both strands together, as shown in Fig. 4-3. A special vise-like tool is, used to clamp the junction tight. With the Nicopress junction, a THIMBLE (grooved metal ring in the looped eye to prevent chafe) must be used. Because of the bend required in the wire rope at the thimble, flexible wire rope such as 7 x 19 should be used for ultimate strength at the junction.

[Rolf]

Mark, do you tie your halyard to the pulpit for your long high speed Catalina runs? People who motor frequently at high speed on the bumpy open ocean (me and my 90!) should always reinforce the forestay with the jib halyard to pulpit secured slightly tighter than the attached forestay tension.

I think the mast "pumping" forward and backward, especially with the extra weight of the furler, slowly but surely weakened the loop. You were very lucky it did not come straight back into the cockpit on top of you when motoring at high speed.

Everyone out there please reinforce the forestay with your jib halyard to pulpit when motoring fast!

Rolf

[Dimitri-2000X-Tampa]

Just a word of caution....If you use the stock jib halyard (which is mounted at the same height as the forestay attachment), you won't be able to use your roller furling since the halyard will wind up with the furled sail. I tried this for a while and got so frustrated with the tangles, that I stopped using this method altogether. Now with the spinnaker halyard being higher up, this does not happen anymore as long as you have the halyard tensioned properly.

[parrothead]

On the , at least, the elimination of mast-pumping action while under power is another benefit of adding running backstays. With tension on both backstays, the sag is pulled out of the the headstay and the mast no longer moves about when motoring. As you'll see from the photos of my backstay mod at http://macgregorsailors.com/cgi-bin/mod ... record=819 we also have moved the spinnaker halyard to its own dedicated hound, and I do now keep it secured to the pulpit whenever we aren't flying the chute - just for the security that comes from redundancy.

[Frank C]

Doug, your Mod picture shows the tang for runners on the thru-bolt with the forestay hounds. On my X-boat, that bolt carries the upper shroud tangs. Where are your upper shrouds attached?

Incidently, looks like Roger HAS upgraded the mast hardware.
The X-boat hounds look as if scrounged from a surplus bin.

[parrothead]

Frank,
The upper shrouds on the , as well as the headstay, terminate at the big shackle that's toward the left side of the photo [the shrouds are lying flush with the front of the mast - the headstay is going upward at ~ 45 degrees]. This is how the mast is able to rotate, it twists the hound back & forth against the U of the shackle.

[Frank C]

Oh! ... DUH!
Forgot about that. Thanks.

[rick retiree]

Glad all aboard ok. Your incident strikes a nerve, as I had the same experience of the genny roller furling forestay breaking just last week. Only thing that saved the mast from falling was when I installed a Boomkicker this spring I installed the topping lift line to the bowrail as a backup for forestay and sure am glad I did. The cable broke at the second swage fitting away from the thimble. As we bought our first sailboat, a 2001 X used and was already set up cant explain failure, perhaps fatique as forestay was kind of sloppy. Had rigging shop install machine crimped swage eye and tighten forestay. Would recommend frequent inspections and/or a backup line.