Cranziron refurbish or replace? Sails and Rigging- Standing and Running Forums

Wow
I didn't know what a Cranz-Iron was till I looked it up. We used a different name for it that I have momentarily forgotten. I had to google it to find out what it was. I haven't replaced valkiers but I know several boat that have fabricated new ones. Usually in stainless steel. Real thick stainless steel. Minimum half inch thick with long tangs welded on that have the holes drilled in them to attach the forestay, dolphin striker and whiskers to it. You can figure out how strong it needs to be by using the rigging strengths as a starting point and then engineer it to double or triple the needed strength. Use the old one as a template. If your not comfortable figuring the strengths then take the raw numbers and the old one to a good welder and he should be able to get the right grade and thickness stainless to get the right strength. I would try for 316 but 304 should work. High quality Bronze would be best but I would bet that it will be a magnitude greater cost. I think you would have to be cast in one piece and then smoothed. I'm not sure you can weld bronze and retain full strength like you can steel.

The other thing I would think of is extra attachment points for a spinnaker if you don't already have that. One of the ones that I know of being replaced was for just that purpose. He put an attachment point forward of the forestay attachment so that a block for the spinnaker could be attached there and clear the roller furling.

so take everything above with a grain of salt as I haven't done it just seen it done. So I am not real up on the details. Doesn't seem like rocket science though just real basic materials strength.

oh while you have the old one off check the wood under it for rot. If it is good I would lightly sand it and put many coats of penetrating epoxy there so that any moisture that gets trapped there has less chance of rotting the wood. My understanding is that is a trouble spot.

That is pretty. I've been doing general reading about bronze versus stainless steel and good bronze is every bit as strong or stronger than stainless steel. Given the depth of the attachment points on your cranziron I would think that you lost no strength at all using the bushing, maybe even gained some. The force of the headstay pull is spread over a larger area with the bushing so it wont point load as much. Of course that also depends on the strength of the bushing.