Rigging Lifelines Hydraulics & Bearing

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More Wire Replacements

We discovered this broken piece, before it actually separated (it was still just a bad crack) on our cruise to Baja this spring. We lashed the bits tightly with some Kevlar leech line and watched it carefully until we got back to La Cruz. When it came to replacing the broken stay, we decided to go with Dyneema.

wingssail images-fredrick roswold
Broken Checkstay Toggle

You really can't trust Stainless Steel.

Broken Toggle

Other than being old, and a little rusted, this is what a good check stay toggle should look like.

Good Toggle

The other end, where it goes into the mast, has a T-Ball

T-Ball on the other end

We cut off the old T-Balls and had loops of Stainless welded on to them so we could attach Dyneema line instead of Stainless steel wire.

Old (left) and New T-Balls with loops (right)

Beautiful



They looked like they should be in a jewelry store

Switching to Dyneema saved us weight and money. The Dyneema is about 1/10 the weight of the wire and it cost us only about $40 a segment, including the custom T-Ball fittings. New wire segments would run around $100 each, plus shipping to Mexico because nobody here has the parts to make them. Plus, it was fun to do.

New Dyneema Runners and Check Stays

We're not sure how long they will last but in the future replacements will be quick and cheap.

New T-Balls and Dyneema on the mast

Our wire lifelines had broken spots, like this, and they needed replacement. We switched these to Dyneema too.

Broken Lifeline

After these projects we had another pile of stainless steel wire on the dock. It's amazing how much this pile weighs.

Discarded Stainless Steel Wire

Hydraulics Puzzle

Our Hydraulic Boom Vang, (the new one we bought in Cape Town)lost pressure in the nitrogen side causing the boom to sag down (the other side, where hydraulic oil goes, was fine). I rebuilt our spare, viewed below, and we had it re-charged with nitrogen. So far it is holding, both gas and oil.

Navtec Boom Vang, disassembled

The new one was a bit of a mystery. It was disassembled and inspected once, and one seal replaced, but after recharging it leaked again. I took it apart and looked more closely.

Somewhere in these parts there is a gas leak

Since the oil side (lower pieces) had been working, the top pieces where the gas is sealed, must be where the problem is. I looked closely at the seals and O-rings in the close-up below, and wound up replacing them all. We recharged it and it seems to be holding.

Close up


New Bearing, a thing of beauty

The last job we did was to put a new bearing in the rudder.

For a few years we have been nagged by some minor movement in the rudder post. There were obviously worn bearings. On the Baja trip in the big waves it made so much noise we decided to bite the bullet and replace the bearings as soon as we could. This month we got the top bearing done.

I lost all the photos of that interesting job, but here is the bearing I had made. Amazingly, everyone who saw this part wanted to handle it. It is just a simple plastic part but it looks and feels lovely. This bearing goes in the top of the rudder assembly, so we could replace it at the dock by lowering the rudder a few inches. The other bearing is at the bottom, and we'll have to do that one in the boat yard in October.

Rudder Bearing