Securing Turnbuckle Barrels

[Daniel Owen]

Another way to secure open turnbuckles is with a piece of appropriately sized stainless or bronze TIG welding rod. The rod is bent in a "C" shape with the open ends going thru both rod holes then the ends are bent over out of the way. This is an idea from local rigger Brian Toss.

I'm hoping to get my boat relaunched in a few weeks. The old girl had some gel coat issues along with at least 10 coats of bottom paint so I went ahead and stripped back to bare glass. Just waiting for good moisture readings before barrier coating. What a big messy job!

[Cathy Monaghan]

">.....He said the reason that pins are still preferable to rings is that if a sheet catches a ring, it can pull it straight and possibly out. But a sheet could never pull out a pin...."

That's why the turnbuckles should be taped over the areas where the rings or pins are installed. We use rings and we always tape'em.

And the entire rig should always be inspected, or at least as much of it as possible, during spring commissioning and before heading offshore, especially on a long passage. During our 2009 delivery of a boat from the Caribbean to Bermuda to Maine, upon inspection before our next leg, I found serveral cotter pins that had rusted out or nearly disappeared. The one that scared us the most, and was the most difficult to fix, was for the headstay.

Cathy
CD32 Realization, #3
Rahway, NJ
Raritan Bay