Protection of gal rigging

[Catalpa1]

hey all,
About to start re-rigging next week and wondering what those of you with gal wire use as far as rust protection.
And before i get a dozen people telling me i should be using stainless, I am DEFINATELY using galvanised.

I have heard all sorts of suggestions as far as protection goes, just wanted to see what is the most common or what you have found to be effective.

Cheers, Luke. SV Catalpa

[Panope]

My current shrouds are parcel and served (I skipped the worm) 100%. Fore stay is unprotected as I use a hanked-on jib.

The set of shrouds that I last replaced (10+ yrs. old) were showing rust in unprotected areas but under the parcel and served areas looked like new.

This is a traditional look which may be inappropriate on a modern boat. It also increases the diameter of the rigging substantially and therefore increases windage.

Parcel and serving does provide chafe protection for sails.

Steve

[Steve Pope]

Boiled linseed oil, remove and soak stay, hang up to dry, you will have a skin that will protect the wire for a season, so long as it isn't abraded or chafed. any rubbed bits can be touched up with another quick coat. I have seen Galvanised rigging that has been treated annually that is over 25 years old and looks as good as new.

[Catalpa1]

yeah the boiled linseed oil seems to be the easiest way to go and seems to be pretty effective. thats the way I was going to go.

[Snowpetrel]

Good on you for going galvanised. What type have you sourced? And how will you terminate it?

You can coil them in an old tub (or car tyre) with linseed. When they are new they often have a light grease coating which might stop the linseed getting into the wire properly.

I use black poly irrigation tube as a cover. I guess if it was done right the wire could be greased.

My Galvanised wire has had no maintenance for ten years and still looks good, with just a few slight rust marks. The onky bad areas are some 6year old shrouds with ratlines seized on. They have rusted under the seizings. I should have kept linseed or fish oil on those shrouds.

The new Galfan? Coatings look great It's a mix of zinc and aluminium I think. Also I like the look of this plastic impregnated stuff the miners are using.

[Catalpa1]

Thanks Snow. I'll be using 6x19 10mm with spliced 50mm thimbles each end. Im not straying to far from whats already on here as the previous owner has done a circumnavigation with the current rig setup, so its pretty well proven itself. Seems stupid to change it. Also with the splices I can keep a good eye on the state of everything.

[Steve Pope]

solid thimbles are a good idea, maybe you already have them, no chance of collapsing.

[Snowpetrel]

Often thought about casting solid thimbles using a galv one and filling it with epoxy.

Just had a look at my mates 7x7 galv. Its been up 3 years and still has some of the original grease on it. Sticky stuff.

What sort of core has the wire got and what sort of boat and rig is she.. Just curious as to what has obvoiusly worked well on your boat.

Cheers

[Catalpa1]

Im not using solid thimbles, just the normal 50mm gal thimbles. In my eyes, gal seems like the way to go, and I love the fact that it gives you warning when it needs replacing. Had a lot of people try and talk me into stainless, but after seeing first hand a stick come down with 3yo SS rigging, I just dont trust the stuff.

And Snow, I love hearing about things like your mates rigging. Feel like Ive made the right choice, even though I already decided that after getting a copy of Brian Toss's Rigging Apprentice. Very helpful.

[Snowpetrel]

Originally Posted by Steve Pope

solid thimbles are a good idea, maybe you already have them, no chance of collapsing.

Actually I've not seen a normal decently made one collapse, I am sure it's possible but many commercial industrial rigging jobs use them. I did some destruction tests on some 7x7 way back, and the wire broke with only slight distortion of the normal thimbles. By the way I was testing a Flemish eye, seemed to be much stronger than a swage or a poorly made splice. when I tested two Flemish eyes back to back the wire in between failed.



My folks gaff ketch has 12 mm 6x19 wire with a rope core. It is at least 25 years old, with lots of hard use. it's stuffed now, but not bad going considering it has had almost no maintenance. The rope core helped by soaking up the oil and squeezing it out. But it is much more stretchy and considerably weaker.

A square rigger I used to work on (soren larsen) had the foremast rigging completely redone. We pulled the 35 year old stuff off and respliced new wire to replace it (24mm 7x7 liverpool splices) The old stuff was perfectly fine under the old worn servings, But as the owner said, he had the wire, and he had the time to replace it, so we did. In reality all the old serving was totally shot, so it didn't take much longer to redo the lot.

[boatman61]

Just used to wipe mine down with FW once a year and dry.. then wipe a rag soaked in 3-1 oil down them... worked fine

[Snowpetrel]

Just remembered, an atkins eric I delivered had galvanised rigging. It was all in great condition except for the tops under the tangs where no fresh water could easily get in to wash away atmospheric contaminants. We cut down some old rigging to get us started and progresively swapped out and shortened all the dodgy rigging removing the bad top parts while we were weather bound. we used flemish eyes. They worked fine.

[mrohr]

Had a boat with galvanizes life lines, just an occasional swipe with boiled linseed oil on a rag and never a problem despite some hard use. Third world craft use galvanized rigging extensively and have been on some craft where the galvanized rigging was the only component that wasn't worrisome.

[Catalpa1]

The wire has a rope fibre core on a bermuadian cutter rig. Sails very well. Twin backstays, uppers, intermediates, 2 lowers on each side, innerforestay and forestay. the 2 front stays are both stainless. The genoa is 160% and on furling, the staysail hanked on and self tacking, hence the stainless on the front.

[Snowpetrel]

Originally Posted by Catalpa1

The wire has a rope fibre core on a bermuadian cutter rig. Sails very well. Twin backstays, uppers, intermediates, 2 lowers on each side, innerforestay and forestay. the 2 front stays are both stainless. The genoa is 160% and on furling, the staysail hanked on and self tacking, hence the stainless on the front.

Sounds good. Thanks for the info. I often wondered about using more stretchy wire. Especailly for the lowers and intermediates. Might revisit thst idea. I think modern yachts take the zero stretch concept to far. A little bit of give often can reduce shock loadings.