Re: [Paddlewise] blown out footpeg

At 10:16 AM 1/24/99 -0500, you wrote:
>However, if aluminum is in contact with a dissimilar metal, steel,
>copper or brass, and immersed in a saline solution, this will cause a
>similar electrolytic reaction as anodizing and corrode the aluminum to
>complete disinigration (if applied long enough) which I suspect could be
>fairly quick on a thin walled aluminum tube tent pole.  I would believe
>this could happen quickly with steel flanges or locks on the poles.
>I havn't any personal experience with ocean water and aluminum, so I
>hesitate making any truly authoritive remarks.  I have replaced my
>footpegs with aluminum ones I have machined myself (extending them for
>my abnormally long appendeges), and hope they don't fatigue at an
>inoppurtune time...

I have in fact experienced the corrosion/electrolysis effect with my
footpegs that others were speculating about. The original footpegs that
came with my boat were made with a small piece of aluminum flat stock that
ran within the plastic rail, attached with stainless steel screws to a bent
"L" shaped piece of aluminum flat stock which was the footpeg proper. After
about eight years of quite regular use, the area of aluminum immediately
around the stainless steel screwheads corroded to the point where they
pulled through. Fortunately, this happened just as I was embarking for the
morning, and not as I was bearing down on the peg while surfing a wave or
such like. Equally fortunately, my boat is well designed enough that it
does not need a rudder to track. I simply pulled the rudder out of the
water, used some washers from my repair kit to hold the peg and the sliding
part together (the washer meant they could no longer slide in the rail, so
they were "static" footpegs) and completed the remaining four days of the
trip without incident. 
I did not make a warranty claim on this, since I think my use level borders
on the professional/rental type. I simply bought another company's
aftermarket system, drilled replacement holes in the new rails to match the
existing through-hull holes in my boat. The new pegs are welded rather than
screwed, and the adjustment system is a slider located sensibly at about
thigh distance for easy tightening and slackening while underway (the
previous system had awkward levers located on the far side of the peg—great
on the beach, clumsy at sea.)  Two years old and going strong!
  
Cheers,

Philip T.
N49°16' W123°08' 
"The opinions expressed in this posting are not necessarily those of my
employer, or indeed, of any sentient being."
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