Jib halyard fitting failure

Excelsior had an interesting incident while racing this weekend. We were adjusting Halyard tension while beatin g to windward in 15-18 knot breeze and smooth water. The tang attaching the jib halyard block to the masthead came down with the block still attached. We quickly hoisted the jib with a spare spinnaker halyard and continued on the race. After we returned to the dock, I hoisted a crewmember to the top of the mast to see what was wrong. It seems that the tang is supposed to be held in place by a cotter pin through a pin which also holds the tang to which the forestay is attached. Th cotter pin sheared and the tang came off the pin. The forestay tang remained attached and the rig stayed up due to the tension on the pin/tang/forestay assembly. My questions are: 1. Has this happened to anyone? 2. Should I replace the pin/cotterpin assembly with a bolt and locking nut or is the original design sufficient for another 30+ years? Steve Ritz pre-1972 Cal 2-30 Excelsior

Yikes, sounds scary! I'd feel better about the rig if there was no possibility of that kind of incident happening again, especially where the forestay is involved, but that's just me. Jean-Louis Cal 20 #343 From: cal30slr <ca… [at] cox.net> To: Ca… [at] yahoogroups.com Sent: Monday, April 27, 2009 9:51:54 AM Subject: [Cal_Boats] Jib halyard fitting failure Excelsior had an interesting incident while racing this weekend. We were adjusting Halyard tension while beatin g to windward in 15-18 knot breeze and smooth water. The tang attaching the jib halyard block to the masthead came down with the block still attached. We quickly hoisted the jib with a spare spinnaker halyard and continued on the race. After we returned to the dock, I hoisted a crewmember to the top of the mast to see what was wrong. It seems that the tang is supposed to be held in place by a cotter pin through a pin which also holds the tang to which the forestay is attached. Th cotter pin sheared and the tang came off the pin. The forestay tang remained attached and the rig stayed up due to the tension on the pin/tang/forestay assembly. My questions are: 1. Has this happened to anyone? 2. Should I replace the pin/cotterpin assembly with a bolt and locking nut or is the original design sufficient for another 30+ years? Steve Ritz pre-1972 Cal 2-30 Excelsior

Lord Nougat wrote: > > > Yikes, sounds scary! > > > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------ > *From:* cal30slr <ca… [at] cox.net> > *To:* Ca… [at] yahoogroups.com > *Sent:* Monday, April 27, 2009 9:51:54 AM > *Subject:* [Cal_Boats] Jib halyard fitting failure > > It seems that the tang is supposed to be held in place by a cotter > pin through a pin which also holds the tang to which the forestay is > attached. Th cotter pin sheared and the tang came off the pin. The > forestay tang remained attached and the rig stayed up due to the > tension on the pin/tang/forestay assembly. > I just re-read this. Do you mean that the cotter pin was the only thing holding the halyard block tang onto the clevis pin? That's kinda scary. I presume that the forestay is attached to doubled mast tangs that work like a fork around the upper terminal of the forestay--that is, there's one mast tang, then the forestay terminal, then another mast tang, then the cotter pin that keeps the clevis pin from coming adrift. It sounds like your jib halyard block was on a tang hanging from the clevis pin, outside the two mast tangs, with only the cotter pin to keep it from sliding off. Not a good plan. Move the halyard block tang inside the two mast tangs, if I understand it correctly, so everything is sandwiched in the two mast tangs. Chris Campbell