DaySailer.org Forum

I thought it may be of interest to some that one of the new set of stays I purchased from D&R Marine and installed in July failed just above the swage at the upper end of the turnbuckle. This occurred with the boat on the mooring with the sails furled under sail cover on the boom and a tear-drop sail bag on the forestay. I have contacted D&R about this and have not heard back from them but needless to say, I am not happy as the mast, sail cover, mast step casting, and tabernacle fitting were damaged. Buyer beware- I hope that D&R will make good on this failure though I have seen more negative reviews of this supplier now than when I last looked at this forum and the D&R website. When considering this upgrade, I initially considered building my own stays with Sta-Loc fittings as I have done this successfully in the past with a Cape Dory I had that had a frozen turnbuckle. The cost of six fittings is what dissuaded me on this project. Stay tuned.

James B. Lumsden
207-594-4106

D&R Marine responds better to phone calls than e-mail. He can be slow answering an e-mail. I have been using a set of his stays on my DS II for nine years in both salt water and fresh.

John

Does "failed just above the swage" mean the cable snapped at that point?

Do give them a call, as suggested and report back the result. It doesn't sound like you've tried very hard to resolve the issue.

Also, please clarify the failure point.

You report the boat was on a mooring: were the stays properly tightened? What are conditions at that location? Sheltered?

I too am very interested in the particulars regarding this failure. I have extensive experience with swaging SS fittings onto SS cable (pins and balls onto cables for parachute ripcord assemblies), and when properly done, the swage will always exceed the cable strength, i.e. the cable will fail before the swage during pull testing, and we pull tested every single one we built. This of course is with new-condition, undamaged cable and fittings. Once an assembly goes out into the field tho, all bets are off. I have no experience with Sta-Loc fittings, so cannot comment on those.

Just curious: where are you seeing the negative reviews of D&R? Because one way or the other, customer service is a D&R hallmark, and Rudy will make it right, regardless of whether it was a faulty swage on his end or a faulty installation on yours. As noted though, the best way to communicate with him is by the good ol' fashioned phone.