mizzen_port

Comment

Comment by Eddie Offermann on April 18, 2013 at 6:53pm

I actually had the aperture open wide - so it's not actually vibrating just blurred by a really narrow depth of field. You may be right about the alignment of the swage eye and the shroud though. I'll check that out, both down below with the camera and be ready to deal with it when I go aloft.

Comment by Clyde A. Phillips on April 18, 2013 at 6:48pm

And the backstay fitting goes below the life because that if the two were lifted to vertical you'll see that the backstay is forward of the lift aloft. That matches the lower ends where the backstays are forward of the lift. I very much appreciate the high resolution of your camera--it gives me details!  One of which: it looks like the upper shroud is vibrating!  It's not the vibration that bothers me, its the fact that the swage eye is not in line with the shroud.  That makes for possible metal fatigue and failure of the shroud at the point.  It looks to me as if the double tang is too tight at the top end of the eye.  The ends of the tang should be parallel, the holes should line up so the pin is at 90 degrees to the flats, and the space between the parallel surfaces should be wider than the thickness of the eye fitting.  A fix would be to place a piece of square stock steel thicker than the eye (check an eye on a shroud at the rail for its thickness) through the tang above the eye, and clamp (take several aloft so you'll have one of the right size) down on the flats to bend the ends down to parallel (you will have to go beyond what you want to account for spring back).  I think that can be done aloft without taking the shroud off the masthead.  I hope that's clear enough.  Keep up your good work.

Comment by Eddie Offermann on April 18, 2013 at 5:54pm

Another angle of where the topping lift and probably the running backstays attach to the mizzen mast.