This is BAD

[talbot]

All the DS masts I've ever seen have the shrouds attached to the mast with steel tangs that take 3 SS rivets each. There are other types of fittings, but they all involve rivets.

[Salty Dog]

OK Thanks Talbot

I have a air rivet gun I need to use, that should be the ticket.

[Salty Dog]

I could not remember how the shrouds were attached. ( I'm 5 1/2 hrs away from my boat.) But Breaking wind has a very good pic. of the mast/tang/shroud attachment in his pic album. It looks like you could change shrouds with out changing tangs , but I guess if you are in the refurbish mode you might as well change out both. in case the rivets are weak from age.

SD

[jeadstx]

If the tangs are alright, you should only need to attach the new stays/shrouds with the clevis pin and cotter pin or split ring.

John

[ldeikis]

If the tangs are alright, you should only need to attach the new stays/shrouds with the clevis pin and cotter pin or split ring.

John

When the mast comes down a second time later that same season because your just-inspected rivets failed, you will feel like a fool. Don't ask me how I know. Redo them.

Luke

[Alan]

My mast came down for reasons unrelated to tang rivets (OK, I admit it, I ran it into a power line in some trees), but maybe because of that I'm overly cautious.

How can you tell if your original-equipment rivets are good? Even with a proper two-handed riveting tool and stainless rivets (both of which I have), how do you know if you'd be better off leaving well enough alone?

[GreenLake]

Using stainless rivets you need to manage dissimilar metals corrosion. For example isolating the rivet using Tef-Gel. The original rivets were aluminum (at least for some instances of original) and therefore have no galvanic issues at the mast / rivet interface, although they are in contact with the SS tang. The situation for SS rivet in aluminum and aluminum rivet in SS incidentally is said to not be symmetric. Can't for the life of me remember which way around was more problematic.