Mast Fitting for Goose Neck

Scott · Post by **Scott** » Fri Jun 02, 2006 2:02 pm

or are there many who have never had this problem ??????

I like chip am a dumbass. (Heh JK chip) Mine came loose when my forestay pin broke and my mast came down with the boom attached. My boat is a 97 and they were tight untill that incedent.

delevi · Post by **delevi** » Fri Jun 02, 2006 11:05 pm

Went to HD today and couldn't find the right rivet gun. They only had two. One for $20, and another for $25. Neither would be suitable for 3/16 SS rivets, per the label on the packaging. Couldn't find any rivets larger than 1/8 either. OSH had the same selection. Searched online too, and can't find one that would work. What a PITA!

ON edit:
I don't think bolts would work. There is just no way to get to the back side to get the nut in place. Drilling straight through would be a mess, since the shape would require a much larger hole than the bolt to get it to come out at the same place on the other side. I think even with a large washer, this would be sloppy and not a good fasten.

delevi · Post by **delevi** » Sat Jun 03, 2006 3:34 pm

Got a Rivet Gun from Ace (Ace brand) made in Taiwan. $23.99. Worked like a charm. Had to go to West Marine to buy SS 3/16 rivets at .99 each. 4-6 clams and they were set. The real pain was drilling out the old ones. Broke 4 bits. About an hour of work to drill out the old ones and about 5 minuts installing the new ones. Drilling stainless stell is really tough

Hey Chip,

You said you had to do yours because your forestay pin broke. YHIKES

Are we talking dismasting? How did it happen?

Catigale · Post by **Catigale** » Sat Jun 03, 2006 5:29 pm

Leon - were you using a standard drill bit or did you try Titanium or Cobalt bits??

delevi · Post by **delevi** » Sat Jun 03, 2006 8:03 pm

Catigale,

Standard at first, then I dropped by West Marine and bought a Cobalt bit. Didn't help much. I then pulled back on the round head of the old rivets with a thin screwdirver, gripped it with pliers and twisted & pulled those heads off. Then put a screwdriver through the hole and tapped them in with a hammer so they would fully come out. Ugly, but it wokred.

Frank C · Post by **Frank C** » Sun Jun 04, 2006 3:30 am

delevi wrote: ... tapped them in with a hammer ...
Ugly, but it wokred.

Got plenty of 'backyard mods' on my boat, too~!

Scott · Post by **Scott** » Sun Jun 04, 2006 5:04 am

I think that was me that had the forestay pin incedent.

How it happened I dunnoh. I check all stressed parts on my rig annually and every raising and lowering.

My daughter and I went to the boat one afternoon to do some fishing and it was down. Baffled. Glad we werent on the water.

delevi · Post by **delevi** » Sun Jun 04, 2006 11:03 am

Scott,

Sorry, didn't mean to mix you up with Chip. Good thing that didn't happen on the water. I replaced my forestay pin with Bills, larger pin. It is just a bit thicker, longer, easier to install, and less likely to come out. $10 I think.

fair winds,
Leon

Chip Hindes · Post by **Chip Hindes** » Mon Jun 05, 2006 7:28 am

The forestay pin on the furler as issued from CDI is 6mm. If you lose it, you'll discover all the other pins on the Mac are 1/4" and slightly too large to pin the furler, and that (at least in the slightly backward, no-metric U.S.) 6mm pins are pretty much impossible to come by.

The best solution IMO is to drill the furler celvis out to 1/4" and use a 1/4" pin. It's a five minute mod, and the very first mod I mad on my new Mac after droppng the pin into the deep grass in my yard.

However, and I can't stress this enough, going to the next smaller 3/16 pin is a bad idea. Shear strength varies by the square of diameter; and by using a 3/16" pin on the forestay you're sacrificing 40% of the load capacity on what is almost certainly the single higest loaded component on the boat.

Last year on the Conch Cruiser trip I happend to be passing by some of the boats at one of the Bimini marinas and noticed the owner of one had replaced the pin with a #10 machne screw and nut that looked worn to the point that perhaps half it's original diameter remained.

I donated my spare furler pin.

I'm sure Scott didn't do either of these.

Catigale · Post by **Catigale** » Mon Jun 05, 2006 7:49 am

Last year on the Conch Cruiser trip I happend to be passing by some of the boats at one of the Bimini marinas and noticed the owner of one had replaced the pin with a #10 machne screw and nut that looked worn to the point that perhaps half it's original diameter remained

Night Sailor · Post by **Night Sailor** » Mon Jun 05, 2006 11:27 am

Mallardjusted asked: Having recently purchased our MacX, this thread has piqued my interest. Is this something that happens to everyones boat, or are there many who have never had this problem ??????

No. Many of us have put tens of thousands of miles on Xs and other boats and never had an OEM rivet fail.

delevi · Post by **delevi** » Mon Jun 05, 2006 1:37 pm

The best solution IMO is to drill the furler celvis out to 1/4" and use a 1/4" pin. It's a five minute mod

I did the same thing when I bought Bill's forestay pin. It is a 1/4". Has a locking latch instead of a ring-ding. Having the pin break, come out or having forestay failure while on the water is a scary proposition

Post by **kmclemore** » Mon Jun 05, 2006 7:08 pm

delevi wrote:The real pain was drilling out the old ones. Broke 4 bits. About an hour of work to drill out the old ones and about 5 minuts installing the new ones. Drilling stainless stell is really tough

It's important to use drilling (cutting) lubricant whenever drilling any metal, particularly stainless... goes much easier and you'll go through fewer bits.

Catigale · Post by **Catigale** » Tue Jun 06, 2006 4:30 am

In contrast with drilling out the rivets, drilling out the furler from 6mm to the 1/4 inch pin, even though the tang is SS, is easy...I did it with a cordless drill with very little torque..you are removing a tiny amount of material.

Chip Hindes · Post by **Chip Hindes** » Tue Jun 06, 2006 6:25 am

It's important to use drilling (cutting) lubricant whenever drilling any metal, particularly stainless... goes much easier and you'll go through fewer bits.

True and there are several additional keys to drilling 300 series SS. It is "gooey" and work hardens. As the bit cuts through the material, the uncut surface work hardens to a considerable depth. If you drill at too low a feed rate, you will not break through the hardened surface layer and the bit will just skip off rather than cutting.

For most people, if it appears the drill is not cutting well the tendency is to run the drill faster; this is exactly the wrong thing to do. Use a lower speed and a higher feed rate. Unfortunately, most cordless drills don't have enough torque to properly drill stainless even in the lowest gear.

When drilling something like a pop rivet with a hollow center, don't start with a drill that is too small. It will jam in the sides of the existing hole.

MacGregorSailors.com

MacGregorSailors.com

Mast Fitting for Goose Neck

Rivets are good