cutting away standing rigging after dismasting

[maby]

Never tried it (for obvious reasons), but a very experienced sailor friend of ours swears by a pair of heavy club hammers. He claims that if you hold one on one side of the bottle screw and thump the screw hard with the other hammer, it will shatter within a couple of blows. Anyone got an old bottlescrew to test this theory on?

 

[Deleted member 36384]

Never tried it (for obvious reasons), but a very experienced sailor friend of ours swears by a pair of heavy club hammers. He claims that if you hold one on one side of the bottle screw and thump the screw hard with the other hammer, it will shatter within a couple of blows. Anyone got an old bottlescrew to test this theory on?

The Myth Busters TV programme tested a claim that if you hit two hammers together they will shatter. They proved the claim was wrong after all sorts of testing. I cant see why a bottle screw would "shatter". The material would just yield and mash up a bit.
..

 

[Rossynant]

The Myth Busters TV programme tested a claim that if you hit two hammers together they will shatter. They proved the claim was wrong after all sorts of testing. I cant see why a bottle screw would "shatter". The material would just yield and mash up a bit.
..

They make their own myth in TV I happened to break a hammer... depends how hard a steel. Ordinary kind is rather soft.
Stainless bottle screw kind probably would be possible to break, it's rather hard (at least I've seen such broken in two) but for decent blow I think should be put on anvil or such - can't imagine doing this on deck Or thread can break quite easily if bent by the hit.

 

[sailor22]

Vyv, I agree

Voice of experience - I left a set of bolt croppers on the Labadie Bank in the '79 Fastnet. They did not float when wielded from the water!

I have a a big Felco Cutte and will get a Makita Cordless grinder with several discs

 

[LadyInBed]

Cordless grinder sounds a great idea,

But I'm not sure how it would take to having a wave dump on it!

the rig cutting is something that concerned me on passages. I bought a big set of bolt cutters and tested them on my old rigging they were around £80.00 I was advised not to get cheap ones by the rigger.

I bought some cheap 18'' Heavy Duty Bolt Cutters off our local market about 15 years ago, I think thy cost me a tenner but it might have been £12.
I used them for the first time 3 or 4 years ago when I made up an inner forestay then again a couple of years ago when I shortened my back stays. They worked well, my technique was to brace one handle against my shoulder and pull the other handle (pulling a pint fashion).
I have no problem with cheap tools on the boat.

 

[Deleted member 36384]

..... Stainless bottle screw kind probably would be possible to break, it's rather hard .....

I can guarantee that even in flat calm water and optimal positioning, wielding two "heavy club hammers" and trying to "shatter" a stainless bottle screw will fail to achieve its objective. Don't give the impression that this is possible. A likely outcome is "shattered" bones. If one wishes to wield club hammers then use a punch to drive out pins.

 

[snooks]

A few methods covered in the PBO crash test boat dismasting:

PBO? the cheek of it?!?

The YACHTING MONTHLY Crash test boat...Book and App availiable now

For those who say take out the split pin and clevis pins, yes this can work, but on the YACHTING MONTHLY crash test boat it would have been difficult to remove the forestay this way, as the tang fell aft over the fitting. The nut you can see in the foreground of the pic was spot welded