Standing Rigging... DIY or Hire a Pro?

[nastradam]

Hello, we are new sailboat owners working on our new to us 92 hunter passage 42 in PV, Mexico and are DIY heavy. Does anyone have any experience hiring a shop to build out the stays and replacing the rigging themselves? If so...Is the savings worth doing ourselves vs hiring out the project?
What is the difficulty level?
What is the rough cost savings?
Any reputable shops stateside we can send measurements to and quote out the materials? TIA

 

[jssailem]

You prefaced your profile with the term "NEWBIE".
That alone would raise a red flag regarding trying to DIY standing rigging.

You indicate you are sailing the waters of the Pacific Ocean. The term Pacific suggests peace and tranquility. When it is, your mast is not at risk. When the ocean is angry, she can rip your mast right off your boat.

You are considering changing the most technical system on your boat. Get it wrong, and you can die. A mast failure 5 miles offshore can kill you and your crew. I suggest you seek a professional rigger and ask for help. I know several up here in the PacificNW. I know no one in Mexico. Seek out others in the sailing community. They should be able to help you find a skilled rigger if they exist.

Does anyone have any experience hiring a shop to build out the stays and replacing the rigging themselves? If so...Is the savings worth doing ourselves vs hiring out the project?
Yes.... and NO it is not worth it for you to consider this task!

What is the difficulty level?
High! Scale of job on a boat. 9-10 out of 10 being challenging and critical that it is done correctly.

What is the rough cost savings?
None.

Any reputable shops stateside we can send measurements to and quote out the materials? TIA
RigRight is excellent but you likely know too little of the details to get it correct the first time. So, you are likely to have to pay twice for the materials.

Not trying to be condescending, but this is like bull riding at the Rodeo. Not for a beginner.

 

[Don S/V ILLusion]

Tensioning uppers and lowers as well as balancing forestry and aft rigging borders on being an art form when done correctly. Done correctly, the boat will sail better. Even if there is a DIY cost savings, it’s more a value decision - exaggeration for effect - what’s a catastrophic failure cost?

 

[Project_Mayhem]

Ask your insurance company

 

[nastradam]

@jssailem upon reading your reply my immediate response was frustration...then I read your quote had a good laugh and remembered I'm on the internet.

Thank you for your feedback,

Does anyone have any experience hiring a shop to build out the stays and replacing the rigging themselves? If so...Is the savings worth doing ourselves vs hiring out the project?
Yes.... and NO it is not worth it for you to consider this task!

/\/\Can you tell me more specifics about your experience having a shop build your stays? What was your cost? How long ago did you have it done? Did you have any issues?

 

[nastradam]

@Don S/V ILLusion - I would most likely take on the installation and hire a rigger to inspect and fine tune the rig

 

[Will Gilmore]

@Don S/V ILLusion - I would most likely take on the installation and hire a rigger to inspect and fine tune the rig

You should have that rigger inspect your rigging first. Get his input about DIYing. The rigger should not be put-off by your desire to do it yourself, not if the rigger has any integrity. It will be like talking to a surveyor. You will learn a lot. If the rigger is guarded about offering information regarding the rigging, you don't want to hire that rigger, anyhow.

Many West Marine stores have DIY stay building stations, where you can cut and swag your stays right in the shop. Your rigger will help you get the proper measurements the first try. Then, have your rigger inspect your work. The rigger should also walk you through tuning. Hire the rigger as a mentor. The extra $ will save you money over the years when you've learned to be your own rigger. If you are planning on ocean sailing, you will want to know those skills to effect repairs at sea too. Spend the money to save money, time, and safety.

I think you will find that the large majority of member on this forum hire this job out. Most sailors do not tackle doing their own rigging. Many do their own tuning, but most don't do the cable work themselves.

-Will

 

[colemj]

I've always done my own rigging, but I'm also pretty experienced with it. There is nothing at all difficult or technical with the part of the job that is replacing rigging pin-to-pin. Yes, you can order the rigging, have it made, and install it yourself. The onus is on you to get the measurements correct, but if your rig is down at the time, that is simplified by being able to measure the current wires pin-pin and spec the same.

Tuning the rig does require some specialized experience, particularly the rig on a Hunter. Getting this wrong will at best have the boat performing poorly, and at worst cause a dismasting.

As for money saved, you will pay to have the rigging made, and likely to have it tuned. So your savings will be in removing old rigging and installing new, which entails removing clevis pins and sticking them back in - a very small part of a rigger's overall bill. If you decide to do this without removing the mast, then it is important you understand how to get the old rigging off and the new installed, as that isn't as simple as when the rig is on the ground.

West Marine does not have swage machines for 1x19 wire. Your choice is to pay someone (who will ultimately be a rigger) to make the swaged rigging, or use mechanical terminals and make it yourself. The cost of mechanical terminals will be at least as much as hiring a rigger to make the swages.

RigRite is about the most expensive and most frustrating company for this gear. You will do better with Rigging Only or Atlantic Rigging Supply.

Mark

 

[dlochner]

Lot of words here, let's break it down.

Building your own rigging, i.e., cutting the wire and installing the fittings can be a DIY job with expensive fittings or it can be done by a rigging shop for about the same money with swaged fittings. Swaging is not a DIY job.

If the mast is down, it is very easy to install the wires. Installing wires with the mast up is not a job for an inexperienced DIYer.

Tuning a rig is a skill that every sailor should learn, it is not a difficult task, a bit fiddly and time consuming, but not difficult. Depending on the rig your boat has, a more traditional rig or a B&R Rig, will dictate how much of a challenge tuning will be. A well tuned rig makes a world of difference in boat performance and reduces the chance the rig will come down.

Not all rigging wire is the same. There large variations in quality. Some of the best wire is coming from S Korea. Chinese wire quality, I'm told, is inconsistent.

Shopping cross border these days is a bit unpredictable given all the tariff talk. If you are traveling back to the US periodically, Rigging Only is good rigging shop to use. If the mast is down, take the existing shrouds and send them to Rigging Only and have them duplicated. Most rigging shops will duplicate rigging and it is more accurate than taking measurements.

 

[SteveHughessails]

I am educating myself on tuning our B&R rig on a Hunter 240. I step and unstep our mast all the time as we are trailer sailers. Same as our MAC25. I am very new to sailing and agree, as willing as I am to tear down and learn, I wouldn’t do it on a larger boat. Hopefully by the time I get to where you are, I will at least be able to tune and inspect/replace bits but likely not be able to handle a complete re-rigging.

I would hire a pro to inspect inform and maybe check when you’re done but that my prove arduous too.

Thanks, I do believe I will be enjoying my smaller boat for many many years.

 

[David in Sandusky]

Lot's of options for sharing the cost/work. We have a masthead rig, so the two spreader B & R rig is a real step up in complexity.

We got the mast down on sawhorses. then had a good local rigger come out to measure the stays, build replacements, and install them on the mast. Then we put the mast up and tuned it - something I used to do every winter when we were at a marina that could not pull our boat with the mast up. This assumes you have a mast crane to take the mast down, and put it up. If not, then the yard would have to do it. If you have the time, learning how to tune your B & R rig makes sense to me, but I would sure want to have an expert around the first time I did it.

If you can't find a good rigger in PV, then I would not suggest trying to do it remotely with a US rigger. I'm respecting earlier comments and the higher complexity of your rig over a masthead rig.

 

[shemandr]

The question the OP posed reminds me of the quote from one of the American "Robber Barons" (A term I don't like ). "If you have to ask, you can't afford it." Except in this case it would be "If you have to ask, you should hire a pro".
I did my rigging on my Mark 25 keelboat. But the mast was down and I took the rigging to West Marine, where it was duplicated accurately.

 

[Terry Cox]

Does anyone have any experience hiring a shop to build out the stays and replacing the rigging themselves?

Not here, but during the process be sure to inspect the chainplate installation beneath the cabinetry where the steel rod connects the deck plate to the hull.

 

[CrispyCringle]

The hardest part will be getting the materials while down in Mexico. We are in Sea of Cortez right now, and its like living on another planet sometimes as far as availability of supplies and shipping time and complications. As for the actual job, jez, lots of bugaboo around the topic. Rigging is one of the simplest systems on the boat, but very critical. The hardest parts- can you measure accurately, climb a mast safely, figure out how to swap the wires without the mast falling down (assuming your mast will be up), and figure out how to tune it?

 

[Crazy Dave Condon]

Be careful as there is a big difference with a Hunter 42 Passage and the smaller trailerable sailboat masts

 

[Calif. Ted]

I read Brian Toss's book on rigging and then watched his video, when it got to the part about the B&R rig my eyes glazed over. While having a cold one with a couple riggers I pointed at the Hunter 38 next to us and said "How do you tune that and what about those "struts" at the base of the mast?" They both just kinda shrugged, so I asked "What about that wire between the spreaders, how do you do that and is it first or last?" One said "Both, actually, you are supposed to pre-tension that on the ground and then as the last part of the tune"
Seems a very different sort of tuning then the masthead rigs I'm comfortable with.

 

[colemj]

Seems a very different sort of tuning then the masthead rigs I'm comfortable with.

It is different, but really not that hard. Very similar to catamaran rigs. It just takes some thinking around forces and how the rig is designed. Many masthead monohull rigs are basically tree trunks where the only real important thing is that the correct end of the mast is pointing up. Particularly keel-stepped. They tend to be less sensitive to tuning, and errors here have less of an impact on the rig's stability. Fractional swept spreader rigs rely more on proper tuning both for performance and stability.

But that's just tuning. The actual rigging of it is still just get the correct lengths of wires with the appropriate fittings on each end, and connect them to where they are supposed to go. Simple mechanical stuff.

Mark