How to open jib hanks

[pedcab]

Hi all

Does anyone know of a safe way to open jib hanks?

The thing is I've just bought an assortment of Hipkiss eyelet crimping kits to repair my geenaker and storm jib that have a couple of loose eyelets.



My questions are: If I bend the hanks open will I be able to bend them back on without breaking? Does anyone have experience on this operation? Is there some sort of a trick?

Thanks in advance!

Regards.

Pedro Cabral

[xsboats]

I've always had better luck keeping them intact by bending the the hook through grommet sideways instead of up to create space to slide it out .

[sailingdog]

I'd second what xsboats said... opening the hanks as little as possible will stress them less and make it less likely that they'll break.

[jgeissinger]

I recently took hanks off of a used sail I picked up for an extra. Half of them broke when I was taking them off, and I'm pretty sure the rest would have broken trying to put them back on. My suggestion: Buy new ones.

[pedcab]

DONE!!!

I ended up breaking one but I learned from the mistake: Always open them applying force on the tip of the pin, where the bloddy thing is thinner, and keep on bending by applying a torsion movement to a screwdriver or some similar tool.

If you care to take a look I´ve posted the DIY in my blog, sorry it is in Portuguese:

Regards and thanks for the helpful tips.
O FulĂ´, e o Azul: Substituir um olhal do garruncho


Pedro