Have you replaced your standing rigging yet?

[jibes138]

Fluorescent penetrant inspection requires special equipment and training to interpret the results so you need to have a shop do it with that capability. Shouldn't cost much to check some swage fittings but dye checking is more of an in the field type process.

 

[ryansk]

My company does fluorescent penetrant inspection (and other nondestructive testing methods) for aircraft parts. It would be no problem to have boat hardware shipped into our shop and usually inspected and shipped out the same day. Might be cheaper than new hardware that's not needed. Just a thought.

 

[dicknatta]

New standing rigging is cheap insurance and peace of mind. I upsized my rigging on two of my boats -- Montgomery 17 from 1/8" to 5/32", and O'Day 25 from 5/32" to 3/16". Watch those toggle jaws. Montgomery 17 sat on hoist through Hurricane Charley. The back stay must have been vibrating like a banjo string. At the top compression sleeve most of the wire strands had broken -- evidently from metal fatigue caused by the lateral vibration. The toggle jaw at the top had either been discarded sometime in the past, or it had never been there. The aluminum casting at the masthead held the pad eye so firmly that it was unable to "toggle" to port and stbd. All the flexing occurred where the wire entered the compression sleeve.