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I just pulled my 22' cutter and while my 20 year old stainless steel pintles and gudgeons look brand new I am wondering how I can be sure? Is there a way to strength test them?
if they have no corrosion and have not ben bent or stressed to the point of deformation ( bent ). they will be as strong as the day they were built. what makes you suspect there is a problem?
There is no corrosion and they appear to be perfect. I have always been told that SS rots from the inside out. The boat is being prepped for more offshore sailing so I am going through my list piece by piece and hopefully this one will just get scratched off. They are at least triple over sized for the boat. Is it safe to say that SS does not deteriorate under water? I really wish I knew more about this stuff. My biggest fear is replacing a perfectly good product with something that turns out to be inferior.
You can try dying some WD40/Kroil/penetrating oil of choice with an oil-miscible food colouring and wipe down your hardware, then look it over carefully under a magnifying glass. Any tiny cracks will jump out at you.
My brother is a cliff climber... I asked him a similar question once. His answer: "I replace "bad" equipment immediately. I change my "good" equipment every 3 years regardless of how many times I've used it. Better to spend a little money today than fall 1,000 feet tomorrow..."
He'e just like us except he dies quicker when his equipment fails... but dead is dead..
That is a brilliant concept and one I live by day to day. I do however question the quality of what I can get today compared to having something custom made in the mid 80's by the builder of my boat. I would hate to put something of a lesser quality. If they are good to go no sense replacing them, I just need a way to know for certian, like I said they appear to be perfect. I have seen 40 year old ss drive shafts that are as good as they day they were first splashed.
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