Does anyone know what this is?

Geoffreykwright · July 05, 2019, 01:09:27 PM

I found this sitting on the deck just to the right of the mast. Looks like it might be some sort of spring. Anyone know what it is? (I've got hull# 1494, year 2000)

glennd3 · July 05, 2019, 01:36:26 PM

Maybe be your slip neighbor is messing with you and put it there!

patrice · July 05, 2019, 02:55:54 PM

Hi.

Yes i know what it is.
It is a .....
I have it . It is
A bent wire.

csimmerling · July 05, 2019, 06:48:55 PM

Maybe part of a cotter pin?

mark_53 · July 05, 2019, 09:56:43 PM

Pull on your boom and see if it falls off. A cotter pin is what hold the goose-neck to the mast.

Ron Hill · July 06, 2019, 01:49:51 PM

Sun : It almost looks like someone made their own quick pull "pin" instead of using a ring clip or cotter key? Way too big to be a cotter pin/key!!
There are 2 shinny rub spots on the long leg while there is rust/corrosion on the rest of it!?!

A thought

Noah · July 06, 2019, 02:41:07 PM

Have you checked your hatch(s) hinge(s)? Might have been a Jerry rigged hinge pin.

glennd3 · July 06, 2019, 05:08:57 PM

Geoff I see in your previous threads that you were adjusting your rigging. Any chance this piece came from any of that activity?

Patches · July 07, 2019, 06:55:29 AM

Can't tell for sure. What I can tell you is that when I was up the mast a couple of months ago installing a new anchor light, I discovered that the cotter "keeper" pin (securing the clevis pin which held the forestay to the masthead) had one of the legs "bent" and was abrading my genoa halyard for the furled sail. I carefully attempted to bend it away from the halyard with some pliers, and it snapped off one of the legs of the cotter pin in the process. This secures the entire forestay and furler in place.

I made an appointment with a rigger who detuned the rigged--unloading the clevis pin-- and replaced the broken cotter pin. What he found was a cotter pin which wasn't even stainless, and replaced it with a stainless one. Not good.

Not sure what that piece is from, but if you haven't been aloft in awhile, it may make sense going up and inspecting some of the connecting hardware. If I hadn't gone up to replace the anchor light, I would not have discovered the pin was sawing through my genoa halyard, or that the pin was not stainless. I use a Topclimber to get myself up and down which, at 58, is still doable.

Patches

britinusa · July 07, 2019, 03:04:15 PM

There were probably two, one got ditched, so now you have a radio.

Paul

KWKloeber · July 08, 2019, 08:14:43 PM

Geoff,

is one side flat and the other rounded (ie, is it D shaped like half a cotter pin?) if so, I'd start seriously looking for the other half and what's soon going to be falling out of the hole (clevis, etc.)

Patches,

I don't get it, why would a rigger have to de-load anything to replace a cotter pin? There's **never** (shouldn't be) any loading directly on a cotter.

britinusa · July 09, 2019, 07:51:52 AM

Quote from: britinusa on July 07, 2019, 03:04:15 PM
There were probably two, one got ditched, so now you have a radio.

Paul

British Humor !

Patches · July 09, 2019, 07:08:01 PM

Ken:

The clevis pin had "worked" slightly outboard, wedging what was left of the cotter pin tight into the toggle. No way to get that out without detuning/slackening the rigging.

Although I thought about how I might do this myself, from my Topclimber, I kept going back to what I would do to support the entire weight of the forestay and furler (even after taking the sail off) in the event the clevis pin backed out all the way. How would I muscle the top of the forestay back to the masthead and work a clevis pin in at the same time?

I'm sure if I was in some remote anchorage I would be forced to figure it out. But being that a rigger was nearby and I was going to have him help assess the "noisy partners" issue (see prior post) as well, I happily paid him to do that--with the assistance of yet another rigger on deck. In the end, I was happy he did it.

Patches

KWKloeber · July 09, 2019, 09:13:17 PM

Gotcha, I figured it must have been something like that jammed up.

If it happens again, I've never met a tight clevis pin that my $7.50 harbor freight 32-oz ball peen hammer couldn't tap back into freedom enough to change the cotter.

Geoffreykwright · July 11, 2019, 12:49:01 PM

Thanks for all the feedback. I don't think its the boom - everything there is in place. Hatches seem secure. Its not a piece of a cotter pin. Hope to god its not half of a quick-pull at the top of the forestay keeping it connected to the mast! Will go aloft and check as soon as I can find someone to pull me up.

I am (optimistically) guessing that's not what it is - since the previous owner was meticulous with rigging and upkeep - but you never know.