Belaying Pins
by Bob Patterson

Dear Chuck,

Since I am so enamored of belaying pins and didn't have a lathe or a lot of time, I came up with the items in the attached pictures. Bob's belaying pins are a sexy "nautical" gray (3/4 inch PVC conduit from the Home Improvement house) and very easy to make. I just bought a 10 ft piece of conduit, some matching unions and some PVC pipe cement. The top piece was cut to 4 1/2 inch and the bottom was cut to 6 inches. Assemble per directions for plastic pipe.

A few reminders:

A fastening for line is only as strong as the mounting. I tripled up the edge of the foredeck for these.

PVC is not as strong as oak, so use good judgment as to the strain put on these. I don't think anything larger than 3/8 inch line (as shown) should be used. Impact loads for sheets of large sail areas would probably break these.

In a pinch, just pull the pin up through the coil for quick release.

Fair winds to ye!

Bob Patterson