Hobie 14 Mainsheet clew bracket/grommet

usually attached with solid rivets. Looks like a salt water boat.

Edited by pknapp66 on Nov 03, 2012 - 08:37 PM.

I have replaced the rivets with ss screws and bolts and have been happy with the results. Easier, faster and in my opinion stronger.

Rivets get a bad rap. They can be as strong as needed.
Passenger airplanes, spacecraft and Mars rovers are built with rivets.
The strength is directly related to material selection and a proper installation.
The rivets in the picture didn't fail from wear, they corroded and dissolved.
As pknapp66 pointed out, this is common in a sea water environment.
You could replace the rivets- do you have any experience peening rivets?
That plate looks old school- small with few rivets.
As much as I love rivets, I think HULLFLYER's solution is sound advice.
Bolts and nuts are easy, strong and do not require professional peening skill.
Use Stainless Ny-Lock nuts and try to size the length of the bolts so that very little of the bolt sticks out from the nut once tightened.
If you store your sails rolled up, bolt ends can chew up your sail while you are trailering.
Sheet In!

Edited by klozhald on Nov 05, 2012 - 10:30 AM.

Thanks all,

yes it is a salt water boat, but everything held up pretty well, i am wondering if the original rivets were not ss. i think i will go for ss nuts and bolts just because i hate trying to pull a ss rivet all the way through with my cheap rivet gun

I had this same failure on my old original Hobie 18 sail just as I was about to attach the sail to the boom and push off for the start of a regatta one Saturday morning. Both plates just fell onto the tramp!

So I ran around looking for someone with a rivet gun (and rivets) and pop-riveted it back in place without even lowering the sail and made it out to race.

Never gave that repair another thought and used that sail for a couple of more years before it was sold. Takes a LONG time for rivets to corrode through like that.

However if I had had time to get stainless bolts or solid rivets that might have been better but bolts have their own problems, nuts falling off.

I thought the original rivets were aluminum and either peened on or pressed. You can use aluminum pop rivets but make sure you use an aluminum washer on the back side. Then, you can peen them smooth with a hammer. The easiest solution is to use small stainless screws with nylock nuts. It isn't as pretty, but it is easy and very durable. The other drawback is that the screws are kind of sharp (if they stick out of the nuts), so they could damage other parts of the sail if dragged over them.