[Rhodes22-list] Failed Stays & varnish

[Mary Lou Troy]

Wow, are you the only one adjusting your stays? I ask because it 
sounds a lot like what someone on this list experienced a number of 
years ago and IIRC the cause was determined to be excess twist. 
However your comment about signs of rust seems to indicate it was 
just age. If your rigging wasn't new when your boat was recycled 
there's probably no way to determine how old the rigging might be. 
And your loose stays might have something to do with that. Also look 
for compression of the cabintop mast step (fiberglass indentation 
around the tabernacle) or compression under the compression post in the cabin.

I do think raising and lowering the mast with all of the additional 
manipulation of the loose stays is harder on the stays. We had one 
strand let go a year or so ago on a lower and decided at that time to 
replace all of the lowers and the shrouds. We'll replace the forestay 
when we replace the furler probably within the next year or two. Our 
rigging was not new when Fretless was recycled in 1998.

We have a starboard companionway hatch so no help there but we use 
regular varnish on the tiller. I like the way it looks and feels. We 
keep it covered when not in use so it holds up very well.

Mary Lou
1991 R22  Fretless
Rock Hall, MD


At 10:26 AM 9/21/2007, you wrote:
>I hauled the boat yesterday and was a bit shocked to find that in 
>the two weeks since I last saw her both starboard lower stays were 
>badly damaged.  The aft stay had about one strand left intact, with 
>the rest failed at the top of the upper swage with signs of 
>rust.  The forward stay had about half the strands failed above the 
>swage, and had untwisted to about two feet up.
>
>I had a bit of anxiety over lowering usingthe remaining stays, but 
>eventually rigged a snubber using a dock line and the forestay (in 
>case the remaining stays failed), and got the mast down safely.
>
>Since the forward stay particularly untwisted so obviously, I am 
>guessing I had a twist in it that stressed it,  There was no sign 
>however of untwisting on the aft stay, even with only one strand 
>intact, so I don't quite understand what happened there.  That one 
>failed at the top of the swage.
>
>Guess I am buying some new stays.
>
>Anyone else suffered this sort of failure and figured out why?
>
>To keep from twisting the stays, I usually let them hang loose to 
>find their referred orientation, then attach.  I always hold the 
>upper swage when adjusting the turnbuckles to keep from inducing a twist.
>
>I never quite got the lowers adjusted to my satisfaction this 
>season.  They always seemed a bit loose.  Could this have been a 
>factor?  Maybe it was a symptom (i.e., strands failed and stays 
>stretched and loosened).
>
>Also, still looking for ideas on tiller and cabin hatch finishes 
>that are compatible with one Stan did for me in 2003.
>
>Jim Connolly
>s/v Inisheer
>'85 recycled '03
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