Yowza

Figment · Post by **Figment** » Mon Oct 30, 2006 8:51 pm

That's my 5/16" forestay pin
I guess this is what a stiff deck and solid mast step gets you.

Rachel · Post by **Rachel** » Mon Oct 30, 2006 9:12 pm

Gaaaah!

Good thing you found that now!

Just out of curiosity, is that a bronze pin? If so, I wonder if that's how it was able to bend so much without breaking. Wonder what would have happened with a stainless pin -- no bending at all, or.... "Snap!"?

--- Rachel

(with an admitted I-love-bronze bias, but still open to truth :-)

bcooke · Post by **bcooke** » Mon Oct 30, 2006 9:25 pm

Experimenting with some mast bending are we?

bcooke · Post by **bcooke** » Mon Oct 30, 2006 9:30 pm

...I wonder if that's how it was able to bend so much without breaking.

All metals flow given enough pressure and time. You could make the pin into a preztel if you were truly motivated and had an exceptionally long lifespan :-) The trick with stainless would be to accomplish the bend over a very very very long time. When you cruise along a rock face and observe the 'layers', do you ever wonder how long it takes to bend the rock like that?

-Britton

Figment · Post by **Figment** » Mon Oct 30, 2006 9:38 pm

I suppose we could file this one as yet another reason to unstep the mast each winter.

(and yeah, I did lay on the backstay pretty hard at the end of the season)

Post by **Tim** » Tue Oct 31, 2006 5:58 am

I've seen stainless pins with a similar sort of bend to them. As Britton said, the pins bend like this over a long period of extreme loading.

Mike, how old is that pin?

Figment · Post by **Figment** » Tue Oct 31, 2006 9:21 am

A couple of years, maybe three. It was straight in May, I assure you.