Standing Rigging

[Larry14133]

I have a friend with a fractional rigged racing boat who is in the process of replacing all his solid rod standing rigging. My sailing is more budget driven, I sail a twenty year old thirty foot cruising boat that has all its origional rigging. The boat has never been in salt water and the season is only 5 months long. Should i be concerned, don't want cost to overide safty.

Thanks,

Larry

 

[sailingdog]

Is your rigging wire or rod?? If it is wire, does the wire appear rusty at any place, especially near the swages?? Does it have any broken strands?? Have you removed and inspected your chainplates???

Most of the time, wire rigging will give fairly obvious warning signs, like a broken strand or streaks of rust on the wire... that it is soon to fail. Rod rigging does not do this.

 

[Larry14133]

Wire rigging

My rigging is wire, it all looks new. Have not removed the chane plates.

 

[Tim R.]

Have a professional rigger inspect the rigging. Wire rigging does not always show obvious signs of imminent failure. You could have microscopic cracks in your swages that is not seen with the naked eye without the help of some blue dye. Wire rigging does not fail because the wire breaks. It usually fails at the swage.

 

[Warren Milberg]

The only boat I ever replaced the standing rigging on was a wonderful old C&C I owned some years ago. I always felt that old boat had its OEM standing rigging when I bought it, which was then getting to be 25 years old. Every time I sailed that boat in a blow, I wondered if today was the day the mast would come down, even though from deck level I could not find anything amiss with the standing rigging. Perhaps like reefing, the time to replace your rig is when you start worrying about it. When I did replace the rigging at the end of that season, I inpected the old stuff with a magnifying glass and dye. I found two very small cracks beginning in the swages connecting the uppers to the mast head....

Don't wait too long...

 

[tommays]

Waiting to find a tiny crack when MOST poeple dont step there mast every year seems a BAD idea

My standing rigging was 28 years old and it made me nervious all last summer even with the boat being dry sailed once or twice a week most of its life

And after putting on the NEW stuff i have seen a number of small things on the OLD stuff that were