Gear Failure

[Chris Wicks]

Hi,
With Kaliope CC 67 now launched for her 4th season, I will mention 2 recent items of gear failure. I am interested to hear of other items of gear failure as this will help identify weak points on standard fittings.

1. At the end of last season whilst under full sail in only F3 wind, the stainless loop at base of tabernackle came away and disappeared over the side. This was under tension as it is the lower shackle point for the kicking strap. The weld gave way and I have now replaced it with a SS screw (M6) fitted with a ring nut. This nut now acts as the attachment point for the shackle. Very strong.

2. On launching (this week) the twin deck pullies that turn the genoa and jib halliards to lead them aft to the spinlock cleats gave way. I was only applying hand pressure to sweat up the genoa sheet. (Very rarely do I use the winch) This pully block is fitted to the deck by 4 s/s bolts, and the base plate has a rivet connecting to the pullies. The rivet gave way causing the pullies to come away. A jury rig was necessary. This rivet has now been relaced by an M6 screw some packing washers and a nylock nut. Again stronger than the original fitting, but a bit alarming.

[Simon Head]

Hi Chris

Item 1 is very rare- I have never heard of this before.

Item 2 is less rarer- I had one of these go- I replaced it with a custom fitting-if you look under the albums under "Halcyon" you will see my solution to this one problem.

I believe Graham Kean had one of these fittings break prior to his Round the Island Race.

Its not that difficult to change- just a pain. If anything broke on my arrangement it would be the shackle, not the fitting on the boat.

I can provide a drawing for my arrangement if required. It uses a standard barton block and fits into the standard hole arrangement of the existing fitting.

Regards

Simon Head

[seasickwhale]

Hi Chris,

I had both failures on "Herr Nilsson".

No. 1 was solved in exactly the dame way as you did.

For No. 2 we made a base to fit the old holes and the slope of the deck. On that we bolted a fixed Barton block (no swivel any more).

To add a few gear failures:

- a cleat parted from the boom (maybe I shoud have undone the lazy jacks before going sailing in F5) - obviously my own fault.
- the original SA cam cleats (junk) for the jib and genoa sheet lost their grip after about 3 seasons and were replaced with spinlock PXR0810/SW cams on a swivel base.
- the original SA jammers (even worse junk) were unreliable and thus dangerous. They were replaced with Easylock mini clutches.

On the whole I have come to the conclusion that the SA boat has good substance with cheap deck fittings.

BTW - wasn't it you that posted about a mast splitting along its seams in the Yahoo forum? I have the same problem. Do you have any advice on that?

[Simon Head]

I had to deal with a mast split on arriving at Milford Haven for a weeks holiday a few years ago- it delayed my launch for a day (not happy:().

I fixed it by using epoxy down the seams and then using a Spanish clamp to clamp the seam (this is basically similar to a tourniquet).

It was OK for 2 years- I then replaced the mast as the ones supplied by Honnor Marine appeared to be better made, although heavier than the SA ones.

Epoxy down the seam should fix it though

Regards

Simon

ps I replaced all my SA jammers after the first sail- the genoa/jib cleats were cr*p- the jammers were spinlocks (good quality) but were dangerous as a rope snag could release the jammer. All my cleats are spinlocks- clutches for the halyards, swivel cam cleats for both the genoa and staysail sheets.

[oak]

mast splitting,
I agree with Simon,epoxy should do the trick.
this year I stripped the mast right back and although there weren't significant cracks I coated it with 3 layers of West epoxy and then 4 coats of 2 pack Perfection.
looks quite nice although a little darker, more to the point it should keep the weather out.
Simon ,is the mast from Honor the same size to the S.A. as no one replied to the query on sail sizes.
Re the failure of the turning blocks.do they need to swivel?could one use the Barton fixed stand up double block
Oak
"merlin"

[Simon Head]

Hi "Oak"

The way I have done this is that the swivel is in the block, not in the deck fitting. Most of the swivel to be truthful is in the plane parallel to the for-aft line of the boat.

Regards

Simon

PS I will measure all my sails as they are all off the boat at the moment- I am preparing for our annual Scottish cruise at the end of the Month- we are going from Largs through the Crinan Canal to Croabh Haven and then day sailing from Craobh to Jura and Sanday.

[seasickwhale]

Hi "Oak",

mast splitting,
... Re the failure of the turning blocks.do they need to swivel?could one use the Barton fixed stand up double block
Oak
"merlin"

See my earlier post above:
[INDENT]...we made a base to fit the old holes and the slope of the deck. On that we bolted a fixed Barton block (no swivel any more).
[/INDENT]I will try to take photos of a few bits and pieces when "Herr Nilsson" takes to the water in Morbihan. I will post these for you.

[oak]

thanks "SW",more options the better.look forward to the photos.I actually have 3 blocks on my little swivel,the third are the lazy jacks which come back to the cockpit which allows very easy and fast topping up
envy you in Morbihan,your last photos from there were very atmospheric.
Jack
"Merlin"

[Dennis]

[quote="Simon Head"] I then replaced the mast as the ones supplied by Honnor Marine appeared to be better made, although heavier than the SA ones.


If anyone is interested, I weighed the mast off Mary Ann (CC19 #100) when I was working on it fitting the nav. lights and VHF aerial.
It weighed in at 25Kg totally bare ie/ no fittings at all.

It makes you think, the mast weighs as much as the outboard motor.

Cheers

Dennis

[Chris Wicks]

Re the mast splitting, my solution was as per other replies although done by a boatbuilder/carpenter.... for 80 euros.... He stripped off the varnish and filled the cracks with epoxy. When I picked it up he told me to apply 3 coast of varnish with 50% white spirit, then further 3 coats of varnish. This held up all last season and over the winter. Now I am back on the water and all looks great for this year. Mine is a UK mast.