It is only money and you will enjoy spending it more than your descendants.
Mark Powers
In 2007 I mounted an eye bolt through the the hole in the wishboom with the eye bolt on the underside and nut above to keep the boom as high as possible. Lashing the clew to this smooth eye bolt ring never caused any fraying to the clew lashing in 12 years. By 2007 the round hole had become oval due to wear from the shackle used secure the clew since 1981.
John Newell
Mascouche 26C 1
Toronto
Thank you, Mark, for the pointer to e-rigging. Very informative.
I only partly agree with Mark’s comment that money spent today will be enjoyed more than if left to be spent by descendants. I feel obliged to recognize the possibility that they might enjoy it more. On the other hand, since we won’t be there to see what our descendants do, saving the money for them does risk wasting it on an unverifiable possibility.
Here’re three alternative plans for following Mark’s advice on how to enjoy spending $264.12:
-
Buy one eye bolt, spend $259 elsewhere on your boat, and consider leaving the boat to your descendants.
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Buy 55 eye bolts, use one on your boat, send one to me as a gift, and gift the remaining 53 to other Nonsuch owners. Use the 54 thank you notes you’ll receive in return as starters for a great barbeque this summer, or a wood fire next winter. (Or, of course, just recycle them.)
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Donate the entire $264.12 to a good cause, e.g.: The Los Angeles Chapter of the Fund for Balding Nonsuch Sailors Named Bob.
– Bob
Solar Wind
Nonsuch 26C #143
Putting the money into the boat and then bequeathing the boat to the descendants sound like a good idea. You enjoy the spend and the descendants get an improved boat as a gift. That is what we call a win win. IN this situation there is an English expression that comes to mind: “Bob’s your uncle”. So Bob, I could be a nephew if you like.
I am wondering if something like this bolt to the casting with the lashings going through the eye might be better than an eye bolt.
98-mm-diamond-padeye
or
5-t-stainless-steel-fixed-padeye-u-bolt
Unfortunately they do not appear to give dimensions and at over 1 pound it is a heft piece of kit.
or
Just mount the bolt so that the U runs for and aft, matching the clew ring.
Mark Powers
I do not use a lashing, but in many circumstances it is the best solution. I use a large twisted shackle, 1/2 pin. The hole in the casting is 9/16" so there is no slop in the mounting point as well I hammered the opening of the shackle so that it is an interference fit across the casting. The prevents most of the sideways movement so the sail grommet handles the friction. Been like this for 18 years. You can accomplish the same thing on a damaged mount by fixing a stainless plate across the top and bottom and with a appropriately sized hole. I would fill the gaps with resin the re drill.
But at the end of the day using 5mm dinghy line to make a lashing is easy peasy…
Thor
I re-built my lashing lines this winter, re-using the shackle (from the clew end) from the old lines. I replaced with 1/4’ dyneema (8,000 lbs working load, IIRC). The lines ended up being about 5 feet long. Previous line was looped five or six times between the wishbone and the clew grommet, and my intention is to do that and cleat off the end at a handy wishbone-placed cleat.
b.
Brian
SV Serenity
Nonsuch Nereus #003
Pax River, MD
I picked up two of these* for Serenity, but haven’t yet fitted them (still on the hard).
b.
Brian
SV Serenity
Nonsuch Nereus #003
Pax River, MD
Here is a link to an article from Pratical Sailor on lashings: lashing-for-strength
If you are considering using dyneema you should also consider using eye splices for the connections. Here are a couple of videos on how to make locking Brummel splices.
watch watch
The first is showing the splice with both ends of the line free and the second shows the splice with one end fixed. They are relatively simple to make and are better than knots except that adjusting length is a harder process.
Mark Powers
Bob and Don
The hole in the casting looks similar to yours. I tried to clean up the casting edge before I switched to the lashing - the lashing snapped in about one day. I filed and sanded more of the hole edge away but the new lashing snapped in a few days. I’m back to the nice big shackles and all is good.
If I wanted to make that hole smooth enough to prevent cutting the lashing, there wouldn’t be much casting left. I have to bolt a new doubler over this area to reinforce it and then Marks idea of a bolt-on eye may be used.
The three big shackles on the halyard, clew, and tack are identical and are quick release.
Tom
26C 28
Penetang
Yeah, I just don’t see how to run a lashing through the hole in the casting without chafing risk. That’s why the options seem to me to be sticking with a shackle, keeping the shackle but running a lashing from it rather than directly connecting it to the sail, adding an eyebolt, or adding some other doubling and fastening.
Mike Quill also sells an excellent replacement boom fitting with a good solution. I don’t play in the financial league that’d make it viable for me, but it’s a top-notch solution for those who do. (Let me take this opportunity to encourage those well-heeled folks to consider donating to the previously mentioned The Los Angeles Chapter of the Fund for Balding Nonsuch Sailors Named Bob.)
It suddenly dawned on me that, in 37 years of owning six different sailboats, I’ve never actually encountered a situation where the ability to quickly release the sail clew mattered. I originally went to the lashing because I was told it was good thing to be able to have a quick release by having something you could cut. My boating life’s been spent in relatively unchallenging conditions. I trust people with more varied experience to have good reasons. But, I don’t actually know what they are. Anyone out there ever actually had to release their clew connection in an emergency?
Even without knowing, I like having added a lashing at the clew. I don’t need the sail that close to the boom end, and it allows me to keep the boom end a bit further back. I think that gives me fewer unwanted back rubs from the mainsheet. Emotionally, I like keeping the hardware swinging at the boom end further from my head (although rationally, I don’t think there’s a big risk either way).
I noticed that there are some parts that might help with solutions for sale at good prices at the E-Rigging site Mark pointed out: https://www.e-rigging.com/Stainless-Marine-Rigging-Fittings_c_3954.html
– Bob
Solar Wind
Nonsuch 26C #143
I think if I did the eye bolt lashing again that the Wichard 6645 (6600BStrain @0 deg) would be my choice, there is plenty of room on the clew web to mount fore and aft.
Richard Lane
Port Townsend
Not recommending this, just asking a question for more knowledgeable folks to answer…
– Bob
Solar Wind
Nonsuch 26C #143
I have been following this thread for some time and I will have to take a closer look at the way I lashed my sail last year. It was lashed with something that looked like a shoe lace and I replaced it with Dyema and there is no way it is going to break, you could comfortably lift the boat up with it. Might have been an over reaction. You probably cut through it if you had a good, sharp knife.
I want to make a comment about eye bolts. First, they are designed to be used in tension not bending, bending would greatly reduce their load capacity. Also, the eye should be welded closed.
Mike Jennings.
NS 005 Salt Coats.
Port Moody. BC.
I will agree that this is something to pay attention to. This photo shows what happened while sailing and not tracking how much of the casting had been eaten away by the shackle wearing on the aluminum.
Yes there was a shackle swinging across the deck in the wind as a result. Of course it took from 1986 to 2019 to wear away ;-).
The yard I use (same as Barbara’s 
repaired the castings both fore and aft with a thick stainless plate bolted to the casting.
I still use a shackle and had meant to switch over. Time to get a dynema line run between the sail and the shackle in the casting.
In deference to Ernie and his comment, the crew at Mystic Shipyard has tended to BENEFIT since 1986, the same head rigger. He does know the boat perhaps better then I do since I have only sailed on it since 1995 :-).
But I learn more from this group every year.
Curt Danforth
BENEFIT NS 26 #181
Masons Island, Mystic, CT
See practical-sailor.com Lashing for strength to see how to calculate the number of wraps anyhow to tie off to evenly distribute the load over all strands.
Rob Powers
Respite 26C #50
Sidney BC
Mark,
I can’t watch the videos from work, but I followed the one from Sailing Wisdom (the clearest explanation I found) to put in a locking Brummel on one end of the line. Great minds!
b.
Brian
SV Serenity
Nonsuch Nereus #003
Pax River MD
I’m happy to report my casting is in good shape, tight and round. I did buy a M10 “eye” bolt however so I can lash. But I don’t believe I have room to lash. I can’t If I bring my choker back any further to accommodate a lash. Upon further investigation my sail is literally ripping my mast track off from the mast. I had to add stainless steel gear clamps to assist in preventing this further. I don’t think I have the 4” of space to lash. By adding another 4-6” of lashing chord to an eye bolt the front of wishbone will be up against the mast when tightening the sail.
Could it be my sail is too long at the base? Has it stretched over the years?
Am I totally trimming incorrectly? Ripping my sail track off the mast every time I tighten the choker?
Terry & Clarise
30U #404
Phoenix - Toronto
As you flatten the sail using the choker the foot of the sail will be subject to tension but this force is transmitted through the tack of the sail to the mast via a stainless steel strap which wraps around the mast or sometimes an aluminium casting which is firmly fixed to the mast. The sail slides once the sail is hoisted should not be under so much tension as to start pulling the sail track off the mast. In your photograph, the fully furled sailed can be seen to be pulling the sail track away from the mast but when furled like this there should be no tension in the sail and the choker should be loose. The foot of your sail may have stretched which is why there appears to be insufficient room for it to be lashed to the boom.
The braiding which holds the sail to the sail track slides look in very good condition for an elderly sail and what little we can see of the sail looks good too. It’s possible that the sail was made longer than specified in the owners’ manual which is 24ft (or 7.315m)
Bob Illingworth
Nonsuch Luck 30U #367 (GBR1262T)
Moored Brightlingsea, Essex, UK; cruising the rivers of East Anglia, and, the North Sea.
As you flatten the sail using the choker the foot of the sail will be subject to tension but this force is transmitted through the tack of the sail to the mast via a stainless steel strap which wraps around the mast or sometimes an aluminium casting which is firmly fixed to the mast. The sail slides once the sail is hoisted should not be under so much tension as to start pulling the sail track off the mast. In your photograph, the fully furled sailed can be seen to be pulling the sail track away from the mast but when furled like this there should be no tension in the sail and the choker should be loose. The foot of your sail may have stretched which is why there appears to be insufficient room for it to be lashed to the boom.
The braiding which holds the sail to the sail track slides look in very good condition for an elderly sail and what little we can see of the sail looks good too. It’s possible that the sail was made longer than specified in the owners’ manual which is 24ft (or 7.315m)
Bob Illingworth
Nonsuch Luck 30U #367 (GBR1262T)
Moored Brightlingsea, Essex, UK; cruising the rivers of East Anglia, and, the North Sea.
Terrance,
When I purchased my Nonsuch there were too very long shackles joining the sail to the tack fitting on the mast. That concerned me in that there would therefore be too much pressure on the sail track above. I don’t know if your tack attachment will allow this, but the simple fix for me was to shorten that tack attachment point.
I trim the foot on my sail to where it is drum tight & it has not stretched in 16 years. My sail was built by Botterel some 20 years ago using #10 Dacron and those factors may also play a part.
Herb G. Huber, MISTOFFELEES 30C#91, Lake Huron Nonsuch Association, Point Edward, Ontario