How Old Is Your Standing Rigging

[fxykty]

Wow, Tim, great photo and story about Tropic Bird.

Here’s a picture of our 9.5 year old forestay at the upper swage fitting. It was pristine 6 months earlier when inspected prior to our last pair of passages to Tonga and back and cruising there and since we got back. Eeek!



Our forestay had loosened and had too much movement, which would have exacerbated existing problems within the swage and broke the strands more quickly than otherwise. Maybe.

We now have all new forestay, cap shrouds, running backstays, and replaced all the tangs, toggles and chainplates. Also went fibre, but that’s a different topic. Our diamond stays were all replaced 5 years ago, so we’re on an alternate 5 year schedule.

Our UK-based insurance company has a “standing rigging does not exceed 10 years of age” clause in our policy.

[col50]

Unless there is visible damage, why not get everything load-tested? As far as I remember, this usually done at 40% of breaking load. Most rigging shops are capable of doing this.

[Cynara]

Was 20 years old. Was still fine, except 2 of the lower turnbuckle screws failed at the sametime. I replaced all the rigging with help from a friend in a weekend. After that I had it inspected by a rigger, same person I bought the wire and turnbuckles through. Then he went sailing with me to adjust the rig.

[chrisr]

Originally Posted by col50

Unless there is visible damage, why not get everything load-tested? As far as I remember, this usually done at 40% of breaking load. Most rigging shops are capable of doing this.

most of the cost is in the labour...actual wire etc is not that much. by the time you take it off to test, you might as well replace it.

we use to dye test rod rigging on my race boats but that was a different situation / equation

cheers,

[Icarus]

I changed recently the forestay
The rest of the rigging is about 25 years old and still good. I check the terminals for cracks every now and then.
I do replace the terminal pins every few years.

[col50]

Originally Posted by chrisr

most of the cost is in the labour...actual wire etc is not that much. by the time you take it off to test, you might as well replace it.

we use to dye test rod rigging on my race boats but that was a different situation / equation
cheers,

Replacing all the wire and fittings (including the turnbuckles) on my 50 foot boat costs about $9,000 for just the parts. I can't imagine it would cost anywhere near that much for labor. Other then the testing, I would do my own work.

[SV Siren]

Our Columbia 50 is 52 years old.

The original chainplates are having replacements made as I speak. The rest of the rigging is 20 years old. I had a rigging survey done, which mentioned one of the uppers needs replacing, which I will replace both, as well as the forestay, out of principle just in case. Everything else gets inspections regularly.