Leave well enough alone, or ...

[Peter]

Checking over my standing rigging, I'm not too impressed with the lower shroud attachment points.
They share a hefty aluminum bracket with the spreaders, but the pin (8 mm or 5/16") gives me some concern.
The ends are countersunk so that the pin is only supported by half the thickness of the bracket at each end. They've lasted 36 years and still appear solid, but I'm tempted to remove them and replace with a 5/16" SS bolts/lock nut combination.

Pull them out and replace, or leave well enough alone? ..............

The spreaders were held on with a 1/4" aluminum pin (which I replaced with a bolt) but there is no shear load on them, as there is with the lower shroud anchors.

[Tim]

If part of the bracket is already milled out to create the countersink, do you actually gain anything if you install a bolt instead of the pin? Won't there still be only have the thickness of the bracket supporting the bolt, too?

Is the concern the pin, or the fact that part of the bracket is milled away, reducing its thickness?

[Peter]

Tim:
I'm not so much eying the bracket as the pin. The pin is hollow on the ends, reducing it's overall bearing surface. I guess it doesn't matter as the shear line is at the inside edges of the bracket. The pins are tight so rotating and wearing the aluminum bracket is not an issue. I think I'm talking myself out of it already :-)