Cotter pins, split rings, or safety wire?

[Jdege]

When I bought my boat, I lowered the masts, and removed the turnbuckles from the stays and shrouds.

Now I'm looking at putting them back up, and that means reattaching the turnbuckles.

One of the reasons I removed them was that they don't seem to have been attached correctly. Some of the pins had cotter pins holding them in place, some had split rings, some had safety wire, and one just sent to have some odd piece of wire in place of safety wire.

How should the pins be secured? What's usual practice?

[Wotname]

Depending on the type of turnbuckle, you will see different solutions however all of them should do the same job which is preventing the turnbuckle from unscrewing.

The more common methods are cotter pins, split rings, lock nuts (on the RH thread end) and safety wire.

Providing they prevent the turnbuckle from coming loose, can't catch lines (or skin) and don't fall (or break) off, then they are all good.