DIY standing rigging in Oz

[pwillems]

Hi all,

I'll be looking to replace my standing rigging this winter, but will be DIYing it. I can find suppliers in Oz for the wire and other bits, but I'm rather looking for a hybrid solution where I can order lengths of wire with one end swaged and the other end ready to be trimmed off slightly and finished using a mechanical fitting on site by myself.

I've found a number of suppliers which can do this, but none in Oz.

Can anyone recommend a supplier for this? Preferably on the west coast?

Thanks.

[Jim Cate]

Don't know about way out west, but Allyacht Spars or David Lamborne in the Brisbane area can likely help you. However, by the time you pay for shipping and swaging and cutting, you might save money by buying bulk wire and using mechanical terminals on both ends... and then if ever needed, replacement in the woop woop is easier to accomplish.

Good luck with the project,

Jim

[billknny]

Surely any of the local full service riggers CAN do this...

They might not want to.

[ohthetrees]

You might consider synthetic rigging. The next boat i re-rig will be synthetic. I think it is very DIY friendly too. The most important things seem to be using the right low stretch synthetic rope, sizing your rigging not for safe working load but for minimizing stretch, getting all the constructional creep pulled out after you make up splices, but before installation.

[GILow]

I looked at doing this in Adelaide but in the end the best price by a large margin was from buying the NZ made Searig mechanical fittings for both ends and doing the whole lot myself.

[Dave_S]

Originally Posted by ohthetrees

You might consider synthetic rigging. The next boat i re-rig will be synthetic. I think it is very DIY friendly too. The most important things seem to be using the right low stretch synthetic rope, sizing your rigging not for safe working load but for minimizing stretch, getting all the constructional creep pulled out after you make up splices, but before installation.

+1

Well worth thinking about.

It seems there are lots of advantages and not much in the way of disadvantsges.

[Mr B]

All Tools in Bunbury have a Mechanical Swaging tool for $100-00,
Its a solid looking tool,
More than likely they will have the swage ends to go with it,
This was just a quick Google search,

All things Stainless, Have all the stainless wire you need in all sizes, and the fittings to go with it,
300, to 1000 metre rolls,
They are an Online store and deliver OZ wide,
They have an impressive list of stainless wire and fittings,

Cheers Brian,

[jmschmidt]

Sorry but the fact that all the other posters here have pointed out the obvious regarding availability of rigging parts worldwide and you seem to be unaware of these facts, makes me wonder if you are up to the task of doing your own standing rigging?

[kryg]

May I suggest research Dyneena rigging, forget swagging as is costly and time consuming splicing is faster and cheaper but not cheap! I would not use a rigger who works mostly in Stainless rigging wire. I suggest from my positive experience you reconsider using stainless steel rigging.

The cost should be no more than re-rigging in stainless or cheaper. It is far easier to work with and stronger than Stainless steel - I save about 250 kilos aloft as a result, in exchange for 30 kilos of Dyneema rigging. I have no idea the type of boat you have, regardless you will benefit on making the change like I did. In my case I changed all my rigging to Dyneema,

I hired an honest rigger who is an expert in Dyneema rigging. My rigger, Peter Greig. works up and down the east coast. I call him a nomadic Master Rigger. He can advise you who to use to help you on the west coast as it is a network of closed group of expert Dyneema riggers who know what they are doing. Here are photos of his work on my boat.

Good luck with it, no matter what you do, changing ones rigging is a big adventure of discovery it is a big job it is wise to work with a rigger you can trust old school riggers working with Dyneema they are the ones in the know.

Kryg

Originally Posted by pwillems

Hi all,

I'll be looking to replace my standing rigging this winter, but will be DIYing it. I can find suppliers in Oz for the wire and other bits, but I'm rather looking for a hybrid solution where I can order lengths of wire with one end swaged and the other end ready to be trimmed off slightly and finished using a mechanical fitting on site by myself.

I've found a number of suppliers which can do this, but none in Oz.

Can anyone recommend a supplier for this? Preferably on the west coast?

Thanks.

[Wotname]

Originally Posted by pwillems

Hi all,

I'll be looking to replace my standing rigging this winter, but will be DIYing it. I can find suppliers in Oz for the wire and other bits, but I'm rather looking for a hybrid solution where I can order lengths of wire with one end swaged and the other end ready to be trimmed off slightly and finished using a mechanical fitting on site by myself.

I've found a number of suppliers which can do this, but none in Oz.

Can anyone recommend a supplier for this? Preferably on the west coast?

Thanks.

These guys can do it and in the past I have purchased a lot of rigging items from them - they were always very helpful and they are just up the road from you.

Boating Hardware – Perth

[RaymondR]

Yacht Grot in Fremantle will look after you at reasonable prices.

[GILow]

Originally Posted by jmschmidt

Sorry but the fact that all the other posters here have pointed out the obvious regarding availability of rigging parts worldwide and you seem to be unaware of these facts, makes me wonder if you are up to the task of doing your own standing rigging?

Seriously!? I rather think you have missed the intelligence of the OP’s question and do not understand the significance of their location.

The very nature of the OP’s question suggests to me that they are more qualified than most to DIY this particular task.

[GILow]

Originally Posted by Mr B

All Tools in Bunbury have a Mechanical Swaging tool for $100-00,
Its a solid looking tool,
More than likely they will have the swage ends to go with it,
This was just a quick Google search,
,

I don’t know for a fact, but I strongly suspect that sort of thing is not adequate for the task. Rigging swages are a pretty specialised bit of kit and, from my understanding, require a particular tool which performs a kind of continuous rolling swage action, not a focussed pressure point swage like that sort of tool provides.

I might be wrong... it has happened before...

[Mr B]

Its what the professionals use, $100-00 from most companys,
Its for Stainless steel wire rope,
Maybe they are doing it wrong too,

I must admit, They have dropped in price considerably since I first checked them out,
As I was considering doing my own Rig,

[Oceanride007]

I changed over to Dynex, my rigger was more interested in type of Turn buckles I had. He had a supply of special right hand threaded hoops that went directly on to my Existing turn buckles. Some here would argue that 10mm Dia is to tight a turn for Dynex. But keeping my Turn buckles makes easy adjustment. My rigger suggested 1:1 ratio of size SS to Dynex. I would suggest 1.1:1 ie Dynex 10% bigger Dia.

Had to Shorten the backstay by a few inches once (when bottle screw out of adjustment), easy, but took courage.

This work can be done by ameteur but best to get help, making allowances is a bit tricky but could be learnt if you make accurate measurements and record them, noticed Rigger in nearby shop that has tables that he made up himself. Think got a copy somewhere, will send if pm me. I kept original SS forstay but a sail buddy changed over to Dynex, smoothing furler bearings and spreaders would need to be considered.