Wire cutters for rigging

[rotrax]

I will add a battery angle grinder to Jarrow Lily's toolkit.

I already have sodding great boltcutters wrapped in greased polythene alongside the emergency steering kit and a faithful hacksaw and plenty of fine tooth blades.

After recently cutting large quantities of S/S ranging from 3mm strip, 20mm bar and 6mm angle the cheapo Parkside £19.99 angle grinder with thin cutting discs was an eye opener.

I have even made a clamp for the lathe toolpost to take my Ozito Dremel copy.

I now have a toolpost grinder ?

 

[anoccasionalyachtsman]

Must have been a pretty small mast to lift it back on board. I only have a 31 ft boat but no way could I haul the mast back if there was only 3 of us. If it was flat water a block & tackle to drag one end aboard might be possible but to be honest with all the ropes & wires that would be floating about as well as sails. I would rather rid myself of the lot, to avoid the possibility of getting any of it round the prop. That would then totally disable the boat

A finely honed crew of six or seven, slightly bigger boat than yours, and it was in the Solent where you don't really want to leave stuff like that lying around, but that was why I initially planned to leave the forestay until last - use it as a drogue until we ditched it.

 

[BobnLesley]

I'm yet another who after trying both on a discarded 8mm wire kept the hacksaw (full-sized, not a junior) with a stock of good quality blades to hand and dumped the bolt cutters; never needed to do the job in anger, but the hacksaw was always stowed with a lanyard on its handle, just in case I ever needed to go out on deck with it in earnest.

 

[penberth3]

Drifting the pins out always seems very unlikely to me, once the pin has exited one side of the turnbuckle claw or toggle it’s surely bound to jamb solid as the pin moves to less than perpendicular under the weight of the rigging. Then it’s impossible to move for sure.

Yes, usually the drift simply takes the place of the pin. Double trouble!

 

[penberth3]

I'm yet another who after trying both on a discarded 8mm wire kept the hacksaw (full-sized, not a junior) with a stock of good quality blades to hand and dumped the bolt cutters; never needed to do the job in anger, but the hacksaw was always stowed with a lanyard on its handle, just in case I ever needed to go out on deck with it in earnest.

I prefer the 32 tpi blades for this, which is what the Junior saw uses. Easiest to look on line for 12", the DIY sheds don't have this sort of thing. And always get flexible/bi-metal blades for anything done away from the bench.

 

[Neeves]

Its interesting that so many of us are prepared for, almost, the ultimate disaster. But its a bit like carrying a life raft or flares how often are they used? I wonder how many masts fall down.

To answer the question for our selves, we had a forestay fail and the mast cracked at the deck, keel stepped (but did not fall down). We were 100nm of the Philippine coast. We lashed the mast base and motored to Manilla. After much delay a new mast was shipped to Manilla. About 1 year later we had a shroud fail and the mast came down at the first spreader (we had a crew of 6 and got the whole lot on deck). It was the start of a race in HK Harbour. We tidied up, I dropped the crew at RHKYC and motored home.

We raced JoXephine hard - she was used in at least one 5 hour race every weekend. We, along with Intrigue, were commonly the yacht to beat. We had her from new, she was written off at 4 years old (we were on starboard and 'T' boned at the start line by a much bigger yacht - X-99's were not built to be robust )

We never used a LR nor flares in anger and have not used them since (nor had a rig failure).

Jonathan

 

[Hermit]

Anyone else been careless enough to have actually lost their mast? The boat rolls horribly, as @fisherman says. There is absolutely no way I could have used bolt croppers - you have to hold on with at least one hand. I tapped out all the shroud and backstay pins easily, and would have sawn the forestay if a) we hadn't been able to lift the mast back on board once untangled, or b) I hadn't been able to drift the pin out.

Away from a vice I've found that a junior hacksaw is the best way to cut ss wire, thinner cut, less work.

I am quite pleased that the Feb edition of PBO (out 23rd Dec!) has got my Learning from Experience article about when I lost a mast on the way to SIBS about 25 years ago. Makes a great read!

 

[Malish]

Baudat make ratchet wire rope cutters such as their KS13 that can be used with one hand and are small to stow. I've used one on 8mm stainless rigging and it went through it very easily. Not useful for the OP though as the KS13 has a max of 10mm for stainless wire (but great for those of us with smaller diameter rigging). See for example:
Baudat KS13 Ratchet Wire Rope Cutter 13mm - The Cable Tooling Company

no personal interest etc

 

[fredrussell]

A finely honed crew of six or seven, slightly bigger boat than yours, and it was in the Solent where you don't really want to leave stuff like that lying around, but that was why I initially planned to leave the forestay until last - use it as a drogue until we ditched it.

Just out of interest, was the mast re-usable?

 

[anoccasionalyachtsman]

Just out of interest, was the mast re-usable?

Not sensibly. A spreader root failed and it folded there or thereabouts. We really only saved the spinnaker, its pole and the boom.

 

[oldmanofthehills]

Must have been a pretty small mast to lift it back on board. I only have a 31 ft boat but no way could I haul the mast back if there was only 3 of us. If it was flat water a block & tackle to drag one end aboard might be possible but to be honest with all the ropes & wires that would be floating about as well as sails. I would rather rid myself of the lot, to avoid the possibility of getting any of it round the prop. That would then totally disable the boat

A friend lost mast and cut it all free and then discovered that insurance did not cover loss of mast and sails while racing - it covered other losses. So he had to cough up £16 thousand to get his boat ready again.

If you are in danger of death unless you dump mast and sails then dont hesitate, else think first. You are also bound by insurers to take such actions as are reasonable to mitigate loses

 

[fisherman]

Tell you what chaps, how about wooden deadeyes and rope?

 

[[2574]]

Tell you what chaps, how about wooden deadeyes and rope?

Progressive thinking!