MacGregorSailors.com

Another fix for this is turnbuckle boots.
http://www.westmarine.com/webapp/wcs/st ... 65/11208/2

What size do you recommend?

For freshwater sailing Geoff - electrical tape will be fine....these west coast guys dont appreciate that the Great Lakes dont rot boats.....

Catigale wrote:For freshwater sailing Geoff - electrical tape will be fine....these west coast guys dont appreciate that the Great Lakes dont rot boats.....

Frank C wrote:FWIW ... won't leave behind adhesive goo!
Assuming one chooses not to just use shroud covers, it seems to me that electrical tape is a good choice.

Catigale wrote:..Frank isnt really a west coast guy, hes just stuck there temporarily...

Edit: OH! now I sea~!!!

Exactly...... what he or he said.... OK...now I'm confused.... again





G

..Frank isnt really a west coast guy, hes just stuck there temporarily...

Just to confuse you more electrical tape does leave a residue but it is easier to wipe off but after reading Danny boys thread on dismasting will be using it.
I thought as those ring dings were so hard to manouvre they would never come off.

After my recent inspection of many sailboats.......... for which I have paid dearly, I have to argue about the Black PVC electrical tape being a good barrier on the outside of rigging exposed to salt air/rain/splash etc....

Maybe,, just maybe you could get away with it with rod rigging........ (however the boats I and others proffessionally inspected showed no totally successful sealing)

but with wire rope rigging, flexing, vibration, rope lay, interstitial gaps etc.....

there is still a path for moisture and salt to intrude.

I am convinced now that my boats will not have any more shroud guards, or cable jacketing unless I put them in a standard maintenance/replacement program. They are not infinite lifespan. (this includes my rinkydink lifelines.

Electricians tape is pretty good..... but exterior salt water sailing environment is very harsh and even black tape degrades with solar exposure..... and that is all it takes to crack and allow moisture to be trapped under the edges......

and once any corrosion starts...... it is just as easy for the salt to attack the wire rope at the end of the tape as the well protected joint 3 inches inside the wrap.

..

Ok never thought about it trapping the moisture but that would apply to almost any covering including the rescue tape? which binds to itself and supposedly stops leaks in pipes etc it also has no adhesive.
Had a look and the pvc hose looks like it SHOULD stop the pins droppng out but crikey a mast dropping would be worse than having to replace a couple of turns of electrical tape regularly.
So if tape is not used what is the best option to replace the ringdings?
As for covering the shrouds in my case at least it is essential due to the distances covered by road to stop them rubbing etc.

You guys who trailer and dont slip (like me this year) - road vibration is a whole new ballgame for working things loose - you really should inspect all your ring dings on the boat as part of your prelaunch walkaround - I dont tape mine for that reason.

KayakDan wrote:Another fix for this is turnbuckle boots.
http://www.westmarine.com/webapp/wcs/st ... 65/11208/2

Been a while since I did them,but I believe it was the 1 1/8.

It seems that if you remove the upper pins only they would be easy to get back in.

road vibration is a whole new ballgame for working things loose

I really understated this - its important to realise that 99% of the 'lore' of standing rigging hardware comes from people who dont trailer their boats, so they are completely ignorant of the effects of a 70 mph broad spectrum of vibration on the boat for a couple of hours. You have to add to the knowledge that they bring to the table and do a careful job inspecting everything for looseness when you trailer. I do a 'walk by' the mast before I take it off the bow step and look at every single standing rigging bolt and nut - Ive marked them with sharpie so I can see if they have moved, but you still have to inspect hounds, thimbles, etc for physical wear....