Hi, Robbin
Someone with an older 17 will have to address the jib sheet block for
your style toe-rail, but I think I can maybe help a bit with the
turnbuckles:
If your standing rigging is original, I would strongly suggest replacing
it. Rigging does eventually fatigue or corrode. The life is
considerably longer in freshwater than salt, but it still fatigues,
especially on boats that get trailered and the rigging gets handled a
lot. Usually there is some warning in the form of meathooks, broken
strands, but occasionally it can be missed until it is too late. You
can buy replacement rigging from Jerry for a very reasonable price.
Yes, turnbuckles will loosen themselves if they aren't locked in some
manner. I leave my backstay turnbuckle unlocked and during the course
of a two week trip find myself having to tighten it sometimes. My
forestay and shrouds turnbuckles are locked. Jam nuts, as you describe,
are one way, but the only trouble with them is engine vibration which
can frequently stealthily loosen them. A more secure way is to safety
wire them. Your favorite chandlery probably offers a small spool of
monel wire just for that purpose. Your turnbuckle threaded ends, studs,
should have a small hole through them near their ends. You thread the
wire through that and tie off to the body, twisting the ends together
with a pair of pliers. You do that twice on each turnbuckle, once for
each "half" of it. Then, if you tuck the twisted ends in so nothing can
hang up on them, you are good to go. If the ends hang out, you will
want to wrap them with tape so as to avoid tearing a sail or snagging
yarns in your sheets. All this assumes open body turnbuckles, the
preferred type. If you happen to have closed, or tubular type,
turnbuckles you likely can't use safety wire and have to rely on the jam
nuts.
A penetrating oil such as PB Blaster or Liquid Wrench may help with the
jam nuts, even soaking them over night. But there is also a risk that
the threads, if the nuts are stainless, are galled, a nasty quality that
stainless can have whereby the surface of the threads kind of ball up.
At that point, I'd replace the rigging.
Tod Mills
M17 #408 ('87)
BuscaBrisas
-----Original Message-----
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
[mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
] On Behalf Of Robbin Roddewig
Sent: Friday, December 08, 2006 4:54 PM
To: For and about Montgomery Sailboats
Subject: M_Boats: M-17 blocks on rail and floating mast
Hi Folks,
on my second outing with my '75 M-17 Miss Take, my son home on
Thanksgiving break noted that the lines from the jib were not coming in
at an angle that allowed the winches to work. He had lots of experience
with winches during his season on Lake Superior (Brrr). Upon referencing
some of the other photos on the web site I realized that the blocks
that should apparently be on the toe rail to guide the lines are not
there on my boat. Any suggestions on how to order these and how they
install on the rail?
Also, one of the turnbuckles had come unscrewed when I checked on the
boat today at the marina. The winds are hitting 35mph gusts and my
thought was that it would be a bad thing if the mast decided to crash
due to lack of support. The turnbuckles have nuts at either end but
they are mostly frozen in place. Any suggestions on fixing this beyond
trying to break loose the nuts and using those to lock the turnbuckles?
Anyone else had there turn buckles unscrew themselves?
Thanks in advance
Robbin
>
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