PeKaBe hooks - not suitable for EC-12s

[rs vernon]

I am interested in other people's opinion on this.

It is always good to find out what failed when a boat loses its rig.

Today we had wonderful B rig wind for our fleet race. Two boats came together going upwind and one of boats lost its rig. The skipper said that the PeKaBe hook on the swivel/string at the jib rack straightened out causing the rig to come down. To identify it, that hook is the one that has a little reverse curve at the tip of the open end.

Those hooks are soft steel. The only place they should be used on an EC-12 is on the sheet elastic where they will never see a shock load. Every other place on the EC-12 - backstay, jib stay, sheets lines... Those hooks are not strong enough to handle a good sized shock load.

Good strong hard (stainless) steel hooks, but not the standard PeKaBe.

Scott

[Ragresen]

I hope the replacement Sails ECT hook I gave to him got him back out on the water and remained a good change the day and further out.

[steve h]

I guess the questions become....are the pekabe hooks suited for "normal" sailing conditions, even in B rig? You mentioned contact. If the contact caused the hook to bend and release the rig, how different would the damage have been if it had a heavier duty clip?

If the hook failed under "normal" b-rig conditions, I'd agree that a replacement should be looked at.

Personally, I'd probably want the pekabe hook to fail, and be an easy repair/replace, than to suffer more severe damage to the hull, the deck, or the rig that would end your day or event.