Geoff --

Bronze and stainless turnbuckles are not my imagination. They are mentioned,
favorably, in Understanding Rigs and Rigging, Richard Henderson,
International Marine, 1991 and in Rod Stephens' chapter in Desirable and
Undesirable Characteristics of Offshore Yachts, John Rousmaniere, ed. W.W.
Norton, 1987. (I assume you know of Stephens -- Henderson wrote the USNA -
Annapolis official textbook on boats, among many other things.)

Turns out, they are not gone from the market. Some current Navtec
turnbuckles are stainless and bronze (the web site isn't clear, but the
paper catalog is).

As for stainless screws into aluminum, I'm with you. As a whole, however, we
don't have much in the way of alternatives for attaching things to masts,
particularly where the mast alloy can't be welded, so you frequently see it.
As you say, one of the pastes will help. Best solution is to through bolt
with plastic washers, but doing that on a mast or boom can require
imagination, good hands, and luck.

So, again, I would seriously consider a bronze bushing here......

--
Jim Woodward
www.mvFintry.com


..
"Geoffrey W. Schultz" wrote in message
4.17...
Jim,

I wish that you'd tell that to the stainless screws installed in aluminum
pieces aboard BlueJacket. Those that weren't treated with TefGel are
corroded. Since this is going to be a bearing surface I didn't want any
corrosion increasing the CoF.

-- Geoff

"Jim Woodward" jameslwoodward at attbi dot com wrote in
:

Actually, Geoff, it used to be that good turnbuckles were made with
stainless screws and bronze bodies (or vice versa). The reason is
that stainless galls badly against itself (as many of us know,
although we may not know the word for it other than, "!#$%&*?!" .)
Stainless against bronze runs freely and happily and is a much better
quality device. Unfortunately, they cost more and looked strange, and
are now, I think, gone from the market.

Galvanic doesn't become a real issue unless the two pieces are
immersed. Above deck, there may be a little salt around, but it mostly
gets washed off by the rain, I suspect.