I have a small coil of monel wire that I can use for emergency cotter
pins (mostly because the spares have 'disappeared' from the small parts
drawer). In fact, just a couple of weeks ago I noticed the mainsheet
cotter had gone and wound the wire through 3 times and twisted closed to
act as a cotter... What puzzles me is how the hell did the old SS cotter
disappear. it was correctly set -I had replaced it two years ago when
servicing the traveler.

Cheers MC

katysails wrote:

We use ring and tape. too. Aside from the fact that the rings don't work themselves out or snap off, you also don't get gouged in the ankle by a bent over cotter pin on the way by. BTW, bobbypins can be used as SHORT TERM emergency voter pins if you're in a real crunch...just remember to replace them...they rust through very quickly and won't take a lot of load for a lonmg period of time. They are stronger than paperclips, though.