Had a cracking blast around Brownsea island yesterday evening until I popped out by the harbour entrance. The wind had become very gusty and was slamming the rig. The boat was becomming very uncomfortable so I started the engine and pointed into wind so I could get the sails down.
Once down I could seee that the port inner shroud had parted company with the shroud plate. I was pretty surpised as I had checked all the bottle screws and lock nuts before setting off, Papillon sadly lost her mast over the weekend so this was top of my mind.
On inspection the fork had been spread, I'm not sure if the clevis pin had sheared or fallen out but the violent shaking of the rig had loosened the bottle screw on the other inner shroud as well.
I keep spare clevis pins and the little key ring type thingys (That's what they're called) so all is ok again but it's something I be checking constantly fom now on.
I'm not sure if the initial slamming was caused by the shroud failing or if the shroud failed because of the slamming?
Oh blimey!! Time to fit heavier duty clevis pins and go for split pin instead of the little rings??
ReplyDelete