Discovery - 19th October 2013
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| Very clear Failure |
While up the mast removing the steaming light Igor noticed some corrosion on one of the 4 lower shrouds. This demanded more investigation. If a shroud fails, its time to wave goodbye to the mast, and with it the whole project.
To be honest, this finding leads to a sense of disquiet. We should have spotted this and replaced it in Spain. To sail home with the shrouds in this condition was an error, but lets not stress over hindsight. We got home safely, and we will take this as a lesson to put everything right before sailing again.
That day we measured up the old shrouds
in situ with the new tape measure we bought in B&Q - we got the cheapest budget model, prompting amusing scenes as we unwound the cheap 5m tape measure and the premium 5m one, side by side to make sure they weren't making savings on accuracy.
Replacement - 26th October 2013
With the replacements in hand, we dropped the old shrouds. The pictures tell the story. Even one broken strand should demand immediate replacement, as the loss of strength causes the other strands to follow.
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| The old shrouds |
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| Damaged shroud |
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| Igor working on the shrouds |
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| Nice new shrouds |
The new lowers are now installed. The remaining shrouds still require
attention, and possibly the forestay and backstay. Further, as with all
jobs on boats one repair uncovers another that requires doing, and in this
case we found the deck fittings to the chain plates are loose. Not only
will they have to be tighened, we will take the opportunity to
strengthen the surrounding deck at the same time, so the work goes on!
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