Mast & Boom bolts Replacement

[Remedy]

Hi all...I'm a new (old) 26M owner and can't wait to get her on the water. I've practiced raising the mast and connecting the boom a few times and there's got to be a better way than bolts and nuts for securing the mast and boom. Does anyone know of a good source for stainless steel pins and clips that will fit or for that matter if I should be thinking of replacing the bolts/nuts? Thanks in advance for your time.

Remedy

[David Mellon]

I learned to use clip pins for the forestay to chainplate, boom to mast, sail to boom connections and for detaching the spreaders from the stainless swivel at the mast for transport from a poster on this site. While they are not stainless, they are very cheap and do last me a few years. I think Bluewater Yachts sells a quick pin for the base of the mast. Here is a shot of my 1/4" pins.

[Divecoz]

Welcome aboard Remedy......... Stainless may be important if your on salt water...most the time I am not and you can sure see where I used Non-stainless apparatus on my boat after a few months on the Gulf Mexico.
Where do you sail and park your M? What motor are you using?
BTW if you'll .......Add a few facts to your profile it will often help those trying to answer your questions.
One thing is for sure I have very few "wing dings" those little circle clips on much of anything, anymore, and on nothing that needs to R&R more than once a year.

[delevi]

A locknut is faster to install than a ring-ding and is much more secure. You don't need to wrench it, just hand tighten until the nylon engages. I use numerous shackles & pins for other stuff, but when it comes to mast & boom, I wouldn't risk using pins. I would also avoid using a quick pin (the kind without a ring-ding) on the forestay. Having had pin pop out on a lifeline in the past, I now tape all my ring-dings for all rigging and lifelines.

[Divecoz]

To connect my fore-stay I use the same Bail Pin David shows in his post that bail wont fail ...but to each his own ... we use them in construction because of the safety factor not for the lack of it...

[delevi]

Nothing wrong with that Dive. It's a nice looking pin. I was referring to quick pins and short cotter pins.

[Remedy]

Thanks David, Divecoz and delevi...I'll put all this together and come up with a fix. I think you all have some good points/thought on rigging. I hope I didn't byte off more than I can handle because this mac is the first sailboat I've owned. I have made a few runs on a hobie, which is what I was looking for when I saw my mac and just had to have it. Before I bought her though I did a lot of reading and I thing if I take it slow I can learn. I don't believe that saying about old dogs!
I'm in central Oklahoma and will be sailing most of the time on Lake Texoma. A fairly large lake on the Red River between OK and Texas. It has a lot of sandy beaches, and just about every kind/size boat you can imagine. I bought my 2006 26M in Colorado so there's alot of hoops I have to jump through before I can get my new numbers on her and waiting till then to put her on the water. They watch that kinda stuff real close on Texoma. By the way, her new name is going to be Remedy too.
Thanks again for your help and I'm glad to be a part of your group.

remedy

[tangentair]

I have a pin on the mast base (and most other places) but use a bolt on the mast in the gooseneck and also feel that the nuts and bolts are/were annoying when setting up. Has anyone redesigned the gooseneck, or considered redesigning it, so that it could be pinned to sail and unpinned but remain somehow supported for travel?
And while I use the same pin as shown above for the forestay, I am not comfortable with the arrangement, don't know exactly why, but I miss the strong forestay/backstay safety of the keel boats - one of the other reasons I want to add a bowspirit and second higher up forestay, I just get squirrely when considering that mast coming down on the cockpit.

[Hamin' X]

One thing to consider when using a pin like David has pictured. is to not use it where it could possibly be snagged by a line, or sheet. It takes very little sideways effort to unclip the bail and leave you with a disaster waiting to happen. I have seen this happen in other endeavors, such as erecting towers.

~Rich

[Divecoz]

One thing to consider when using a pin like David has pictured. is to not use it where it could possibly be snagged by a line, or sheet. It takes very little sideways effort to unclip the bail and leave you with a disaster waiting to happen. I have seen this happen in other endeavors, such as erecting towers.

~Rich

I like tangentair and I believe most of us use bolts and nyloc-nuts on the Mast and the boom and the goose-neck. I do use as I stated a bail pin, on my forestay...I might suspect that these bail pins wouold be a snag issue used generally about the boat. However the forestay attachment is in front of the bow rails.
I would think it would take a lot of bad luck to slip the bail and then add enough pressure on the forestay, over 100 lbs. of direct force for most if not all of us. As I have found it can be quite the trick ( and there is a simple trick) to get that pin out when you want it out , without the use of the mast raising winch. But your correct as well , anything is possible... LOOK OUT!!!!!!! dang who'd a thought that would happen

[Remedy]

Hi All,
All of your experiences have given me some good insight here. I'm thinking I will leave it alone until I gain some experience of my own. I really appreciate everyone's advice.

Jim

[Ivan Awfulitch]

I learned to use clip pins for the forestay to chainplate, boom to mast, sail to boom connections and for detaching the spreaders from the stainless swivel at the mast for transport from a poster on this site. While they are not stainless, they are very cheap and do last me a few years. I think Bluewater Yachts sells a quick pin for the base of the mast. Here is a shot of my 1/4" pins.

I wouldn't recommend this pin on the forestay. The '07 26M that was next to me in the marina used one of these and last year while launching had the bail open, the pin release, and the mast fall. Fortunately his daughter onboard got out of the way and was not injured, but the mast suffered significant damage and has quite the bend. The pin was checked by 3 people and was fully inserted and the bail locked. He replaced his with a bolt and nylock nut.

[Divecoz]

Ivan if he pulled out that or any pin in his forestay by accident he had wayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy to much slack going on.. I just raised my mast in the drive, yesterday and inserted and removed that pin several times as I worked thru another issue ..........and getting that Pin or Any pin out is a major PITA! " at least on the M with the mast winch in use, once you get the mast up as far as it can go, you still have to exert pressure against the winch rope to set the pin ... a lot of pressure btw.
If what we have is called standing rigging. Then what Hamin refers to, could...... be called " running rigging" No Trained and Qualified Rigger, Would Ever Use a Bale Pin on any part of a Lifting / Running rig ... I have lifted with Helos and Cranes hundreds of times ( I took a 12 hour cert class)......from 1 or 2 stories to 30 stories and we use clevises and only clevises to make attachments. BUT to each his own...