Excellent summary Jeremy.

I've been a "victim" of a broken shroud at a swage too. "Victim" isn't the right word, it was completely avoidable and was my fault. Why? Because I wasn't careful when I stored the wires for trailering. They would sometimes come out at a weird angle from the mast hound, and I just bungeed them without making them lay flat. This caused the wires to bend un-naturally, which eventually caused one or two strands to break, which then caused the whole thing to break while double trapped in heavy air. Not a great day, and completely avoidable...

Long before that, on a really old boat, I had a bow tang actually break. Seems they develop stress cracks/rust too...

The other caution about quick pins is if they're not exercised, the guts corrode and you can't REMOVE them. I've seen lots of folks who use quick pins on hot sticks but never take them out (seems backwards, doesn't it?). Then, one day the stick drags in the surf, fills with sand and they need to flush it. Only problem is, they can't disconnect it from the crossbar because the quick pin is frozen! Lots of hammering, hack sawing and drinking usually follows...

Mike