Mast Pins

[hazelscamp]

Well, after using the "Quick Pin" (long) to pin my mast for several sails, I finally realized that it was bending out of shape.   Perhaps they should have called it a temporary pin.    I now use a 1/4" stanless bolt for the long pin and it seems to be a good fit and a lot easier to insert and extract.

   The shorter pin on the mast system seems to be out of alignment also, and I have a third pin that I have yet to find a need for!   Stainless bolts will soon replace all these "quick" pins.

[ERIN NEMEC]

 I am inquiring about mast raising and lowering on the Eclipse? How would you describe the difficulty of that ? Is it an easy one-person job?
Thanks in advance for your info

[hazelscamp]

I am still working on improving my time raising the mast, but if all the lines are in there proper place, the mast can go from rigged for trailering, to up & secure in about ten minutes or less.   Of course there are other items to take care of before the launch, but the mast system is no longer the problem it used to be.

See the discussion on the Eclipse setup posting.

[Craig Weis]

Bending a pin?
Makes no difference if the pin is stainless or steel [black iron] the general guide is thickness in inches [say 0.25 for 1/4 inch] times 10,000 pounds divided by 4 is about the limit for both pins.

Having said that the second part goes something like...hardness on the Rockwell Hardness scale. Use a Stainless Steel pin [salt water] and buy a grade 5 or better yet a grade 8 pin [could be a bolt].

So tell us just how tight is the standing rigging on this boat?

My C-P-19 sails well when the wind ward side is taught and the lee side goes sloppy loose. Sail the boat loose and use some tell tails at the batton pockets to access the sail shape [sail lift...works like an aeroplane wing] . skip.

[hazelscamp]

Skip,
I think the main problem with the "Quick Pins" on my Eclipse is that they seem to be of ALUMINUM!   Perhaps they are designed only for temporary use when moving the mast from horizontal to vertical.   My rigging is tight, it takes a bit of strength to lock in the quick-release fittings on the side stays.   I replaced the aluminum pins with SS carriage bolts 1/4" that I have on hand.    No more problems.

[Craig Weis]

So aluminum pins... !!! OMG, that seams too soft but I wonder why they were aluminum in the first place. May be these should not be so tight. So tight as to bend the pins. Better give these some research as to tightness required..

My friend Bob sails a Seaward 26 and he made the fore/aft  standing rigging so tight on his 3/4 fractional rig that he dammaged his cabin 'arch' [these boat do not use a compression post] to the tune of $1400. Oh Boy!  skip.