Hardware Quiz

[Sloop John B]

I dont suspect the halyard cleats on the mast are through bolted. Theyre either like sheet metal screws or the mast hole is threaded for a bolt. Anyone know?

Someone mentioned finding where to pick up the small white plastic plugs that dot the interior. I thought it was a popular outlet like Home Depot. Anyone remember?

Some of the bolt through nuts are badly caulked over with 5200. Is there a product that will cut this stuff?

Ever see those adds where you send your lifelines in and the shop will duplicate them. Anyone ever replace their forward lifelines? How did you do it without sending the Mac into the shop with them? Does the backyard crimp gizmo that the handy neighbor owns work to create the lifeline eye splice, or does it need the million dollar machine required for shrouds?

And for some of you: the main halyard is 61 feet long, plus the bowline bend on the shackle, of 5/16 line. Similar line is used for the jib halyard, mast raising pole, boom vang and genoa sheets. The mainsheet and rudder lines are larger, probably 3/8ths.

For main halyard aft, assuming the mast is indeed 28 feet, I need 727 inches of line to come back along the hatch and get through a rope clutch a little in front of a winch. I have 732 inches in the stock halyard.

[craiglaforce]

Sloopy,

The plastic plugs are at Lowes in the specialty hardware section, right by the nuts and bolts in those little drawers.

5200 removal product avail at West Marine called "Antibond" it comes in a little spritz bottle. It works but takes a little patience and elbow grease.

Not sure about the other questions.

If you are trying to attach special fittings like pelican hooks I think a local rigger would be a better bet. There is usually one at a large marina. Maybe you can sail in and have it done while you have lunch. I replaced a shroud this way before I bought my nicropress tool.

[Mark Prouty]

Someone mentioned finding where to pick up the small white plastic plugs that dot the interior. I thought it was a popular outlet like Home Depot. Anyone remember?

West Marine has them.

[Don T]

Hello:
I got my white plastic plugs at Ace Hardware.

[mike]

Someone mentioned finding where to pick up the small white plastic plugs that dot the interior. I thought it was a popular outlet like Home Depot. Anyone remember?

West Marine has them.

I haven't seen the hole plugs at West Marine (though maybe my local stores just don't stock them)... or perhaps you are referring to those little white screw caps?

Anyway, I've found the hole plugs at Lowe's, Home Depot, and my local Ace Hardware.

--Mike

[Frank C]

I don’t suspect the halyard cleats on the mast are through bolted. They’re either like sheet metal screws or the mast hole is threaded for a bolt. Anyone know?

... Ever see those adds where you send your lifelines in and the shop will duplicate them. Anyone ever replace their forward lifelines? How did you do it without sending the Mac into the shop with them? Does the backyard crimp gizmo that the handy neighbor owns work to create the lifeline eye splice, or does it need the million dollar machine required for shrouds?

... For main halyard aft, assuming the mast is indeed 28 feet, I need 727 inches of line to come back along the hatch and get through a rope clutch a little in front of a winch. I have 732 inches in the stock halyard.

The mast cleats are NOT thru-bolted - just sheet metal screws. These cleats are OK for tying off the halyards when sailing, but DO NOT rely on them to hold the jib halyard when raising the mast. One guy had his jib cleat ripped from the side of the mast, dropping and snapping the mast, crushing the sliding hatch, and nearly his head. (The factory replaced his mast and hatch). Tie-off both ends of your jib halyard to the mast raising gin-pole.

Not sure why I'd ever need to replace the forward life lines, but the factory installation was done on the boat, so mail-order wouldn't work. The aft loop is swaged between two stanchions, and cannot be threaded through them. Perhaps you could ask a rigger to machine-swage a stud for the aft-end - which could therefore be guided through every stanchion. This would not be very expensive, but IMO, hand-swaging your lifelines is amply strong, considering the relative strength of our wimpy stanchions. BTW, there's an evolution toward using hi-tech rope for lifelines (instead of wire rope). There's also a recent study that demonstrated the benefits of having some flexibility built into the lifeline system. (If I can find that link later, I'll post it.)

The mainsail headboard remains 3' off the deck, so your upward halyard run is only ~25' and another 28' back down to the deck. Maybe you're OK with leading the factory halyard back to a clutch or stopper. I changed mine because it began looking a little bit tattered.

[Duane Dunn, Allegro]

You can remove the forward lifelines. The holes in the staunchions are large enough for the swages to pass through. The aft loops do not have thimbles so they can be removed.

I actually released mine to keep water from pooling on the tarp and discovered that they will slip through the staunchion. BlueWater yachts also instructs people to remove and send/bring the starboard one with them if they want to have a pelican hook swaged on to make it easier to get the spreaders out from under the lines. Take a look, I think all are like mine, no rear thimble.

[Frank C]

Yes, Steve, mine on a 2000 26X have no thimble - never occurred to me that they might fit through the stanchions - my bad!

Still, I don't see any point to adding a pelican hook when a snap shackle is smaller, less costly, and stronger too. I added the snap shackle aft, meaning that the lifeline goes slack just enough to avoid stressing the spreaders. If doing the fore lifelines over, I'd look into using Spectra line, and maybe learning how to do a Brummel splice.