securing toggles on rigging

[sailor]

The previous owner of my Cape Dory 270 used cotter keys for the toggles on the stays and shrouds. I was concerned about bare feet scraping across the deck level ones so replaced them all with the clevis pin rings. Was this a better way to go? Or is it one of those 50/50 decisions?

[moctrams]

An "old salt show me to use cotter pins and cut a piece of 1" pvc pipe ran thru a table saw to cut a 1/2" groove to slide over the toggle. I just pull the pipe up to inspect and never have been injured by a bent cotter pin.

Zoom in and you can see them.

[bottomscraper]

I have never lost a cotter pin but I have lost rings on my lifelines. I do not buy into the school of only spreading the ends of a cotter pin a little bit. I'm not really concerned about removing and reusing cotter pins. I bend them all around the rigging pin tight. They seldom catch an anything. I don't tape or cover them since I like to inspect them on a regular basis.

New cotter pins only cost about $0.15 each (less if you buy boxes of 100) Each season I replace 33 cotter pins for a total cost of less that $5.

[Tom Keevil]

Those rings sometimes disappear. We use a machine screw with an acorn nut held by a drop of Locktite. No sharp edges, and we have never lost one.