Antenna bracket

[Steve Laume]

Just a heads up for everyone who is prepping their boats for launch.

When I put Raven away for the winter, I went to remove the mast head antenna. Two out of the three pop rivets sheared right off to leave the bracket swinging on one old rivet. I had planned to replace the antenna and bracket anyway but will drill and tap for machine screws in the new installation.

It seems 30 year old aluminum pop rivets are past their useful life cycle. Even if you just drill out the old ones and replace them, this may save you a lot of grief in the up coming season, Steve.

[bottomscraper]

I think machine screws are the way to go with Tef-Gel. A layer of electrical tape on the back side of the bracket before mounting is a good idea also.

The bails that were on my staysail boom were also aluminum pop-riveted and luckily noticed them corroding before a catastrophic fail.

Stainless pop rivets are also available which aren't so bad. Make sure that they are "all stainless" some actually have the internal mandrel made of plain steel. Some aluminum pop rivets ones are also have steel mandrals, beware of the cheap big box store variety.