Hmmm...

Yesterday I became obsessed with an ongoing hardware problem we have been having on "So It Goes"...

CRAPPY HINGES...

I go to the chandler and buy the best I can find and make sure that the hinge in question is really stainless or bronze (they say it is) and pay silly prices as well only to find that after installing them that beneath the outward stainless sheen there lurks something not so stainless which in time will rust solid. Recently when I go to open my cockpit locker... Well it's not that pretty at all and involves having to do some re-glassing!

So yesterday I spent a lot of time thinking of various cunning plans that ranged from casting my own hardware to re-inventing the wheel (so to speak) and came to something of a conclusion... No more hardware on "So It Goes" where I can replace it with a simpler and better working alternative!

The solution is a page off of our old Wharram Tiki 31 where the rudders were lashed to the boat instead of using expensive and prone to failure gudgeons and pintles. If this sort of system is strong enough to withstand the wear and tear on a rudder, it stands to reason that a cockpit locker hatch should be well within its comfort zone. Fact is, as I plan to use Samson Amsteel for the cordage hinges, that comfort zone would somewhere in the vicinity of a breaking strength of 20,000 pounds per hinge using 1/8 inch Amsteel. Factor in that the cost to redo both of my cockpit lockers would be a fraction of what one less-than-great-quality-marine hinge would cost and you have something of a no-brainer!

My current mantra is "soft tech"...