MacGregorSailors.com

I took my mast off the boat yesterday for the first time ever. Everything went fine.

However, both of the two large shackles, the upper one securing the outer shrouds, and the lower one securing the inner shrouds and the forestay, both had "safety wire" to keep the shackles from inadvertenly "un-screwing" themselves.

I would like to re-install this saftey wire when I put everyting back together. So now to the question...

What type of wire should this be? Is it something special or is this just regular old wire?

Mast in the garage ready for some hole drilling...


New Mast Hound in place.


Thanks,
Jim

I do not know if it is "special wire" I used stainless steel wire I picked up at Pep Boys....I believe any Stainless wire should work.... I always use it on any rigging I can not inspect easily...

how about cable strap?



They use it in the Port here to secure under water...

I picked u p a 50'm roll of ss wire for around $6 i think. The only beef i have with zip ties is they degrade surprisingly quick in the sun. They should be good for the better part of a season (up here) but I wouldn't go any longer.

I have some wire but I don't know what type it is. Probably not SS. For all the money I have spent so far on the boat this year another $6 isn't going to hurt me.

Thanks.

Cheers,
Jim

C130king,

Just get a roll of N-S Safety Lock Wire, .032 dia. (MS22995) from your local A&P mechanic.
A 1lb roll will last you a lifetime, and it has 100s of uses (even on C-130s). Safety wire pliers are optional.
Otherwise use cotter pins and make sure the ends are bent around so lines and hands can't get caught on them.

Dale
(former C-150, 7-ECA & PA-140 wrench bender)

You must have a bit of rigging wire laying around, cut of approx. 200mm unravel it, and you will have 6 or 8 suitable pieces of SS tie wire.

I agree Bob.. SS Wire..is the way to go or SS Cotter pins... There are Ty- Raps That will last for Years.. But if your not sure which ones you getting you could end up with ones that only last months . MOST ALL of those bought now, are cheap plastic..

yukonbob wrote:I picked u p a 50'm roll of ss wire for around $6 i think. The only beef i have with zip ties is they degrade surprisingly quick in the sun. They should be good for the better part of a season (up here) but I wouldn't go any longer.

The safety wire must be something new, I never saw it on my '03 26M. When I took the forestay off to replace it with a 5/32 wire & 5/16 turnbuckle I had to use visegrips to undo the pin in the shackle as it was that tight. I put it back on with visegrips too. I don't think that thing will ever unscrew itself with how tight it is but I will check when I bring the mast down this spring - I have some other maintenance to do. Never really thought about putting wire there, but I did put cotter pins in the turnbuckle threads to keep that from shortening or extending itself. Well, we learn something new all the time.

Terry wrote:The safety wire must be something new, I never saw it on my '03 26M. When I took the forestay off to replace it with a 5/32 wire & 5/16 turnbuckle I had to use visegrips to undo the pin in the shackle as it was that tight. I put it back on with visegrips too. I don't think that thing will ever unscrew itself with how tight it is but I will check when I bring the mast down this spring - I have some other maintenance to do. Never really thought about putting wire there, but I did put cotter pins in the turnbuckle threads to keep that from shortening or extending itself. Well, we learn something new all the time.

Vibration can do mysterious things.

Last season I installed a new claw anchor and connected the shackle to the chain (tightly) and meant to replace the safety wire as I ripped the old one off in the process. I got distracted and I forgot to replace it. On our first outing my son went forward to drop the anchor and as he was lowering it, he said, "Something is not right here." I went up and found the shackle had completely come off. I assume the vibration from trailering it shook the thing loose.
I was lucky. Worse, would have been it coming off on the bottom leaving my anchor down there.

You do need to seize a shackle with either wire or a zip tie on a trailered boat. Trailering does impose a remarkable set of vibrational frequencies onto the rigging and it will loosen up anything that isn't locknutted or seized.

Even Chapmans acknowledges that zip ties are a good solution for this, but I would use UV rated ones aka outdoors. Look in a good hardware store..

I seize my anchor shackle with a zip tie , replacing each season.