Monday 13 April 2020

Shroud attachment details

Being stuck in the house, and being almost out of epoxy, I’m working on odds and sods. One of these is the shroud attachment. My copy of “Sensible Cruising Designs” by Herreshoff, shows a short cut for attaching shrouds using two plates and a clevis pin, rather than a shackle. Ditching the shackle eliminates a potential rattle, so it sounds good to me.

So this is what that looks like for Elena:

I’m not super happy with the forestay attachment. I had a lot if difficulty bending the bronze strap neatly, and it shows. It’s not a particularly good fit, either.

I’m wondering if perhaps a cooler way to do this might be a loop of Dyneema rather than bronze.

Edit: I made a 20cm bridle from 5mm dyneema. This is the shortest I could do maintaining 20:1 bury in the brummel lock splices. The eyes go over some 12mm dia bronze tubes, which sit under the shroud attachments. I reckon this is much nicer.

It’s certainly miles simpler, not to mention lighter. If I want to easily detach the forestay, I could even use a small gaff saddle shackle.

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