A nifty tool preserves fingernails and patience
Issue 78 : May/Jun 2011
The smallest rigging job can cause the greatest pain. This is particularly so if you sail in northern waters; delaying the haulout until after the first cold front of fall arrives exacerbates the problem.
Broken fingernails, aching fingers, and cracked skin are the end result of a cold day’s work. Whether trying to mate the curving end of a stainless-steel split ring and the tiny hole in a clevis pin, or trying to work cotter pins out of the endless parts and pieces of standing rigging, blocks, vangs, and assorted fittings, your patience will be tried and your tolerance for pain will be tested.
Enter the Xuron 496 Split Ring Pliers. My friend Ted Herr, a Soling sailor from Chicago, wrestles with rigging all season as he sails the regatta circuit. After watching me struggle with the rigging on my Cape Dory Typhoon last fall, he shared his secret. For $16 and change you can order this dandy tool. I got mine from McMaster-Carr. It’s so easy to use you’ll look forward to becoming an expert — and pain-free — rigger.
Bill Jacobs, a writer and photographer, has spent the last 48 years in sailboats and powerboats. Winters, he cruises on a Mainship 34 out of Sarasota, Florida; summers, he can be found sailing his Cape Dory Typhoon on Lake Michigan off the shores of Door County, Wisconsin.
Thank you to Sailrite Enterprises, Inc., for providing free access to back issues of Good Old Boat through intellectual property rights. Sailrite.com
