Lew,

Your plan is good if you don't tune the rig much. I can spin out a ring
and change the tension in a stay with my rigging knife.

If you have a boat rigged with rings, you don't need the tape because
there is no thing to snag.

You are largely accurate that a standard cotter pin will stay in with
very little spread of the legs, but that way they can also be knocked
out without much notice. If you do that, tape in not an option.

As to why Slampoud has an in determinite mix, I have no guess. I have a
mix, rings where it take the rig apart and pins (wraped aircraft style)
where I don't.

Matt Colie

Lew Hodgett wrote:
slampoud wrote:

This is more of an encyclopedic rigging question, but perhaps someone
here could enlighten me:
is there a reason to choose a cotter pin over a cotter ring in any
application, or vice versa?

The kinds of applications I'm thinking are for locking turnbuckles and
clevis pins.


snip

I'm convinced the most misunderstood device on the planet it the lowly
cotter pin.

Cotter pins should only be about 1/4" longer than the dia of the rod,
bolt, etc, the go thru and should then only be spread at the tips about
10 degrees.

Sailing in the Great lakes region meant a 6 month season which meant a
common garden variety duct tape could survive that long.

Year around sailing areas probably need sailing tape.

Would make a little pad from duct tape, place it against the cotter pin
points, then wrap more duct tape around say a turnbuckle body to hold it
secure.

At layup time, simply cut the tape away.

I found rings to be a total waste of time.

YMMV

Lew

I used to race a Shark and we used rings on the turnbuckle to chain
plate connection for the shrouds. Unless we taped them, the jib sheets
would regulary unwind them and pull them out.

Dale Gloer

Matt Colie wrote:
Lew,

snip ...

If you have a boat rigged with rings, you don't need the tape because
there is no thing to snag.


snip...

Dale Gloer wrote:
I used to race a Shark and we used rings on the turnbuckle to chain
plate connection for the shrouds. Unless we taped them, the jib sheets
would regulary unwind them and pull them out.

Dale Gloer

Matt Colie wrote:

Lew,

snip ...


If you have a boat rigged with rings, you don't need the tape because
there is no thing to snag.


snip...


During a delivery from Hawaii a few years ago I found 2 of the three cotter
rings at the backstay splitter plate had very nearly fully undone themselves.

After this happened 4 days in a row, and one disappeared from a shroud
turnbuckle, I replaced all rings with pins...

After that I've banned rings on any boat I've had anything to do with.

Brian C

Brian Cleverly wrote:

snip

During a delivery from Hawaii a few years ago I found 2 of the three
cotter rings at the backstay splitter plate had very nearly fully undone
themselves.

After this happened 4 days in a row, and one disappeared from a shroud
turnbuckle, I replaced all rings with pins...

After that I've banned rings on any boat I've had anything to do with.

Heard this same story, more than once.

Have yet to hear of a taped pin coming out.

Lew

I tape cotter rings cuz of this.

The latest Cruising World had an article about this. The point out
that taping stainless steel can lead to corrosion failures. Cotter
pins are the way to go, it seems.
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