ring dings versus cotter pins?

Anybody prefer cotter pins to split rings? My boat dismasted this weekend when either a split ring or clevis pin gave up between the shroud anchor pin and twist toggle. Can't be sure which item broke as the piece parts are two miles offshore in the Chesapeake Bay. Some of my clevis pins still showed the Hobie "H" on them so they are probably 25 years old. I went ahead and replaced them all but I was wondering if cotter pins would be more secure than ring dings for the standing rigging? I leave my boat on the beach exposed to vandals or saboteurs so I'm thinking cotter pins would be more secure. Most vandals don't walk around with needle nosed pliers.

I'm partial to the ring dings. The cotter pins have too many sharp edges. Easy to catch a sail or skin or something of that nature. The only time I had a ring Ding fail is when I didn't put it on fully and it worked itself out.

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Division 10, Fleet 185
Hobie 17 and Hobie 14

Just make it part of your pre-launch routine to check them all out, it takes all but 30 seconds....I make it part of the routine to walk around the boat to check plugs, rudder pins, and all ringdings in critical places (especially the shroud attachments!). The sharp edges of cotter pins scare me, especially in high traffic areas like the shrouds, I think they will eventually get you!

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Arie
H 16 107568

Ring-dings, then use electrical tape to tape down the ones you don't use that often.

This year i switched to ball lock pins for my lower rigging. I can keep an eye on them down there... i leave my boat rigged all year on the beach....

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•Present boat -1998 Hobie 16 Solana Sails furling jib[/size]

Ball lock would scare me on shrouds. I've had the one that holds my tiller extension come out on me once already.

As for the cotter pins, I've cut myself on the onese that hold my rudder pins in.

thanks for your thoughts on the ball locks... Tri_X_Troll... i am switching back to the ring dings next time out,,,,,..

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•Present boat -1998 Hobie 16 Solana Sails furling jib[/size]

This last Saturday, I gave my annual speech to the newbies: 'welcome to the Kanata Sailing Club catamaran sailing sessions'. Fun in the sun and all that.

One of the topics was 'check and double check'. Examples are: 'the Hobie will sail very poorly if the beach wheels are still attached.'

Won't tell you how I know, but when in a rush, and no checking is done, it is very easy for the ropes at the end of the beach wheels to catch an untaped ring-ding and pull it out. That is fine until you tack. Luckily, no one was killed or injured, nor was anything broken, and it was only a two mile paddle back to the club.

Like Matt B says, CHECK, AND DOUBLE CHECK.

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2015 H16, with spin,
SOLD 1989 Hobie SX18 Sail # 1947 "In Theory..."
'Only two things are infinite, the universe, and human stupidity. But I'm not sure about the former.'

Forget the split rings or cotter pins. Ditch the clevis pins and just use pad locks as the pins on all your shroud connections.

sm

A sailing buddy of mine does this with tape too. I thought it was overkill. Not so sure now. I decided to use cotter pins on the anchor pin and twist toggle. I twist each tab around in a full circle with needle nose pliers rather than just bending at a right angle and leaving sharp points. I also use shroud boots. For the shroud adjuster I'm sticking with ring dings for ease of adjustment and mast stepping. I guess I'll tape them too. I'm reluctant to trust anything now and I'll definitely do a full inspection before pushing off the beach. Dismasting was a pretty traumatic experience!

i always use ring dings on the shrouds, but i ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS put tape over them before I go out, and cut the tape off when I'm done sailing.

The reason for my madness: I came in once from a good 3 hour sail on the lake in nice winds only to find that I had only the clevis pin in my shroud adjuster with no ring ding or anything holding it to the shroud. I have no idea how it stayed in there, but I was pretty dang lucky that it somehow got stuck, so now I always tape them up just in case.

Ive already snagged the end of one on my bootie as well and had to unhook myself so I didnt pull it out.

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~vinny

Especially for rings, tape them down. I caught them twice on my brand new righting lines that I installed last weekend, and both of them suffered -- the braided righting lines have a nice pull out of them, and the ring came half-way off. I'd hate for that to happen on the water. Tape 'em with electrical tape or plastic tape. This is standard procedure in other classes of boats I've sailed and it's time well spent.

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Hobie 16, Sunfish. "
If one hull is good, then two must be twice as good!"

Yeah I noticed a big pull on my braided righting line after I started putting the boat back together . That could have been the culprit. It doesn't take too much of a snag to straighten out a ring ding.

About 15 years ago, we were sailing a H18 off Jacksonville Beach and I noticed the starboard shroud flying around not attached to the anchor bar on the hull. The clevis pin had fallen out apparantly after our last tack.

After our initial disbelief and panic, we realized that we could sail back to the beach to our original location without changing tacks. It was scary especially because it was a stiff wind.

Now I use two clevis pins to secure the shrouds to the anchor bar on the hulls. The second pin will fit in the hole above the primary pin and both will be inside the shroud thimble. If one falls out, or fails, I still have another chance.

It's a lot of insurance for minimal cost and weight

wetasse

Great advice. I double up on pins too, not so much for reasons mentioned in this thread, but I feel much better keeping at least one pin in while adjusting. First of all, they are cheap insurance. There is plenty of room to go up or down one hole at a time w/ one of the pins out. Basically leapfrog them as you adjust up or down. May take a little more time to make adjustments, but worth the effort. And taping sounds like a good added measure.

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Jim

2007 Hobie Wave