Aquarius Sail Owners

I just picked up a box of parts and there are several beam wedges in there--at least that is what I would call them. I'm talking about the cast aluminum semi-circular braces that the bolt goes through inside the beam to attach to the hulls.

I noticed that some had the hole off-set a little bit to the side while others had it pretty much in the center. Does it matter, or were they made that way on purpose?

Dan,

The part you are talking about is called a Moon Washer. The hole is supposed to be off center, with the wide portion towards the centerline of the hull. This is important on the outboard washer because it allows for the end cap to be installed. It is less important on the inboard washer, but it does provide better bearing area against the hull if it is installed correctly.

I knew there had to be something special about them. So are they all off center? Why would I have a bunch of center holed ones? Do you think that maybe they were used in the inside bolt?

Dan,

The original ones were centered and I think they may have been a little narrower too...

What, these? I made all of them I could look that shiny and then primed them with zinc chromate green. The inboard rear ones I couldn't get off as the traveler track covered the access holes.

Yep, those are it.

The change to the off-center hole was made in 1985. There should also be an arrow and part number on the top (flat) side of the newer ones.

That would be the port side forward pair. There were no markings that I could discern. The one with the offset hole was outboard.

When you are putting a boat back together using Moon Washers, clean all surfaces first especially the through hole of the Moon Washer. Then liberally lubricate the through hole passage and the bolt body itself. This makes it possible to take the beam out of the saddle at sometime in the future. If you do not lubricate these mating parts with a good quality grease like White Lithium, you probably will never be able to remove the beam bolts again especially if the boat lives around salt water.

Question of the day: There is a safety design feature built into the shape of the SC end cap. Can you tell me what it is ???
Bill

It looks so cool that accidents run away from it? Non skid finish? Nice rounded edge?

You got it gahamby, "the rounded edge".
Before I ever got into beach cats, I saw an accident on a beach cat that used round tubes for main beams. The crew had slipped/fallen forward and hit their head on the sharp/crisp edge of the main beam tube. A gash on the forehead required several stitches to close. This taught me that there needed to be a rounded/softer edge at the end of the beam to cover up the sharp corner/edge at the end of beam. Therefore when SCs were designed and produced, they had end caps with a rounded perimeter to cover up the sharp edge at the end of the beam.