Security without using pliers or rigging tape
Issue 71 : Mar/Apr 2010
I was in a fabric store buying sticky-back Velcro tape for use on insect screens when I saw a Velcro product named One-Wrap. This is a double-sided Velcro strip 3⁄4 -inch wide and 12 feet long. It has hooks on one side and loops on the other so, when wrapped around something, it can stick to itself.
By attaching stainless-steel cotter pins to strips of One-Wrap, I created reusable devices that allow me to lock the turnbuckles on my boat without bending cotter pins or using rigging tape.
To fashion my turnbuckle locks, I took 3⁄32-inch-diameter stainless-steel cotter pins (costing 23 cents each) and, with the help of a bench grinder, reduced their length to about 3⁄4 inch.
I cut the One-Wrap Velcro into 8-inch lengths and laid the pieces out hook-side-down on a scrap of carpet to prevent them from coiling up. I used a dab of hot glue to position the head of a shortened cotter pin at one end of each Velcro strip, on the fuzzy side.
I then mixed up a small batch of epoxy. I daubed the epoxy mix around the heads of the cotter pins and let it dry.
It occurred to me later that I could have daubed a little black enamel paint on the epoxy to provide some UV protection, but I have not done this. Even without this step, we’ve used our Velcro turnbuckle locks for a couple years and they have lasted through rain, snow, and 60-mph winds.
If you were crossing an ocean, cotter pins bent in the traditional way and covered with rigging tape would no doubt be more secure and permanent. But for recreational coastal cruising and round-the-buoys racing, these work fine.
Joe Orinko has sailed the waters of Presque Isle Bay and Lake Erie for more than 25 years, 20 of them in his O’Day 23, Unicorn, and for seven seasons on his second Unicorn, a Catalina 30. Because the love of his life, Sue, shares his passion for sailing, he says it’s easy to find time to sail.
Thank you to Sailrite Enterprises, Inc., for providing free access to back issues of Good Old Boat through intellectual property rights. Sailrite.com
