Standing Rigging

[bayhoss]

After having the mast on my 28+ crash to the deck from a seperated forestay on May 12, I'm finially painted, re-lamped, re-wired and re-steped.
The process of recovering a mast form the bottom and starting a rebuild is a long one. Having a mast fall to the deck is something you will not enjoy (trust me on this one). I had a swedged fitting at the top of the mast seperate. Moral of the story; If your standing rigging is over 15 years old, regardless of appearence, replace it!

 

[Loren Beach]

Glad you are back on the water!


I learned a similar "lesson" after being on another boat that lost its rig in the Pacific off the Washington coast many years ago.

After about 15 years it's time for wires and turnbuckles, IMHO.
Already did that job on our boat.

Cheers,
Loren

 

[treilley]

At the very least get it inspected. There are so many boats out there with old rigging but you do not hear of many failures. I know of only one within my club and I have been there for 5 years.

I replaced mine this year even though it inspected fine. Some of my wire was bent(when not tensioned) and the previous owner had the boat since 1998 and did not replace the rigging. So it was at least 10 years old. My riiging guy estimated 15.

Some more very important points of failure are the chainplates and the U-bolts that some of our Ericsons have. We saw a U-bolt break this year on a 20 yr old boat while tensioning the rig.