Replacing standing rigging without removing mast.

[Jack999000]

Hi, I have a 41 foot yacht and the rigging is 11 years old. I have had 3 quotes for replacing the rigging and they are all around the $9000 mark.
The cost of the wire and fittings is around $3500. Is it possible for me to replace 1 or 2 wires at a time. I would save a lot of money
Interested to know
Thanks

John

 

[jssailem]

It has been done. You will be going up and down the mast many times. How are you at working suspended in the air at the top of your mast?
A $9K figure is pretty good. It is possible that if your take the mast down you will find the work is easier and quicker to accomplish.
Even with the mast down it took 4 months to get spreaders that required replacing on my mast.
You will be able to inspect and repair the other important fittings on the mast that have not received attention for several years. While down it is good to look at electrical and radio systems. And you may want to examine the running rigging in the process. Suspect $9K is a good starting point. There is nothing stopping you from doing some of the work with your feet planted on the ground.
The $3500 number. Is that for finished, assembled, ready to install wire and fittings?

 

[Jack999000]

Yes, the price is ready to be installed. I have all new running rigging and a lot of work has been done on all equipment on top of mast.
I have an electric winch and love working out of a harness. The yacht is only 11 years old. I'm not working atm and think I could successfully complete the job

 

[jssailem]

No rules against doing it. In my situation the wires were rough cut (nearly correct). Needed final fitting before attachment. All the attachments needed fitting. Good luck.

 

[capta]

We replace our wire ourselves. When we replaced the port after lower main shroud, we loosened the starboard forward lower first. Then tightened the two again. For the headstay, it had to be made up by a shop because of the Profurl foil (we had no place to lay out a 70' stay & foil), but installation went quite easily using a spinnaker halyard to haul the stay up. The Jib halyard was used for a headstay during the procedure, but I doubt it was necessary as we have a staysail stay. I think it will take two people with the mast up, at least for the uppers.

 

[Gunni]

When I had my standing rigging replaced a few years ago the riggers found a number of things (failed wiring conduit, bird nests, etc.) that were easily addressed with the mast laying on supports. Maybe just have a good rigger thoroughly inspect your rig and delay the replacement for a few years.

 

[markwbird]

Other than the age do you have any reason to replace it? 11 years is not really that old. I know it's the rule of thumb but it really depends more on wear and tear and weathering.

 

[onlinelee]

I agree with markwbird, although my forestay has been replaced twice due to obvious pending failure on my B361 2003, close inspection of the rest of my rigging shows no signs of problems.

 

[Joe]

Around here the local yard will un step the mast, charge you a nominal lay day fee while you work on it. and re step it with their yard crane. Crane fee is around $200. You can use the old rigging to reference the new... if you use mechanical fittings instead of swaging, all you need is a method to cut the wire.

For mast up replacement, replace one piece at a time ... using a spare halyard to support mast. Choose a calm day, but you'll be surprised how stable the mast is, even with loose shrouds and stays.

 

[rbyham]

I found a young smaller guy to go up mast with cloth tape. Measured each shroud/stay and sent dimensions to rigging.com

Got everything back in a week and sent same guy back up to install. Took couple hours. Everything fit perfect. Cost was $1200 on 31' boat. Been using a year in all kinds of weather no issues. True 41' is a diff animal but going the online source was 1/3 that quoted by pros...