A few toggle design choices

[paramita]

Originally Posted by Brion Toss

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T-bars are the most failure-prone terminal, something even Navtec agrees with. You might consider abandoning those T-tangs and installing real ones, especially if you are considering serious voyaging. That way you can go all-Hayn, too.
For...

Thanks for the reply. If I may play one more round of Is This-A-Horrible-Idea/Help-Me-Pick-Between-The-Lesser-of-Two-Less-Than-Ideal-Choices:

To be honest I'm most likely not at a point where I would be ready to retrofit more robust tang son the mast. So I'm wondering if a combination of a threaded t-ball, half a navtec turnbuckle and a hayne marine eye would be any better than just a Norseman T-Ball.

However at ~$116 each for a half a Navtec 500 series turnbuckle I could just go with a regular turnbuckle there for a fraction of the cost. I just liked the 500 series idea since it would be a little cleaner/less bulky gear aloft... Open to suggestions on this train of thought.

This route would provide protection against fatigue on the T-balls with the toggles at the mast connection, and keep all the mechanical fittings Hayn, theoretically keeping every component in the chain with at least the breaking strength of the wire. The down side to this choice (in addition to sticking with the T-balls and added expense) is the only threaded T-balls I've seen are manufactured by Alexander Roberts... which from what I've read (mainly here and on SailNet) I'm not sure thats a route I'm interested in going. Unless there has been any radical, undocumented change in their reputation/practices recently?

Thanks again everybody... just about to pull the trigger on this!

Matt.

edit: I will say I'm skeptical those threaded t-balls even exist, the only place I've seen them is in sailing services catalog and the picture is fuzzy enough I can't really see threads. Could just be a mis-print.

Also I just stumbled upon another potential red herring here. Has any one ever seen one of these in a more tangible form than a sketch. Could they potentially be used to replace an old Navtec t ball?