Episode 22 Turnbuckle Straighteners

One of the problems of having a demountable mast is that it can be quite easy to bend expensive bits and pieces when raising or lowering it.

I've learned this the hard way, by bending the connections to the turnbuckles at the base of the shrouds. (The shrouds are the wires that connect the mast to the sides of the boat). The problem is that when you lower the mast, things can fold up on themselves, as illustrated in the following photo. If you are not careful to un-fold things before raising the mast and tensioning everything up, you'll get the perfect conditions to bend your shiny stainless steel connections into a horrid mess.

Austral 20 turnbuckle with mast down, showing how it can twist

One solution is to buy expensive turnbuckle covers. I'd need four at about $35 each, giving at outlay of about $140. However, I'm a skinflint, so I decided to experiment with a 1m piece of pipe insulation or lagging (25mm diameter, $4.50 per 1m length), cut into 200mm lengths, and some leftover duct tape. The 25mm diameter insulation is just the right size to fit over the turnbuckle, and is easy to slide up the shroud to give access to the turnbuckle for adjustments. They seem just rigid enough to stop the turnbuckle connections from folding back completely on each other, although they are still quite floppy. Something a little stiffer would be good, but I could not find anything suitable in the giant hardware store down the road.

The straighteners/covers should reduce the risk of bending of my shiny fittings, and there is the bonus of providing some padding, should you decide to stub your toes on them whilst walking about on deck. See below, for a saving of about $135.50, although it is somewhat agricultural and might not be as durable as the proper covers.

Gaffer tape might yield something stiffer than the duct tape, but I find that the adhesive has a habit of oozing out at the edges. Maybe I should try both.

Finally, a tip; when wrapping the duct tape around the pipe insulation, pull about 1m off the roll and lay it flat on a table top with the sticky side up. Then, roll the insulation tube onto the tape. This way, you'll stop the duct tape from folding onto itself and stretching unevenly.