Standing Rigging Replacement - How Frequently?

[Marekaofholland]

We dail a 1994 Oyster 49. Only coastal sailingbinbthe Med. I check every season the Rigging and once every two years have acorifesdional rigger do the same. I checked with my insurance to make sure they are ok with me not renewing the Rigging. So far so good and no need to replace a still perfect rigging

[canman]

On e of the many reasons we bought our 1984 Freedom 39 Pilothouse schooner 18 years ago. . Original carbon Freestanding masts still going strong. But if I do lose one Im hoping the other will get us home.

https://images.app.goo.gl/pKY93i3nhd7i7FpAA

[sailorboy1]

Originally Posted by Cheechako

The Insurance requirement seems to come up over and over... I have NEVER had an insurance company even bring it up, at all. How many here have had them ask? (without asking)
Even if they did ask they wouldn't be smart enough to question chainplates.

Just curious? ... maybe it's the latest thing...

I have and they had requirement of no more than 10 years old for the rigging

[uptickguru]

If the mast is still up the rigging is good. I always carry a spool of 3/8 dynema in case the previous rule is incorrect. And never a triatic stay on a ketch. You have one mast to get you to happy hour. lol. Cheers

[Briggers]

Originally Posted by Cheechako

The Insurance requirement seems to come up over and over... I have NEVER had an insurance company even bring it up, at all. How many here have had them ask? (without asking)
Even if they did ask they wouldn't be smart enough to question chainplates.

Just curious? ... maybe it's the latest thing...

Insurance companies rely on numbers, they have stats for everything you can imagine. Ask them how many chainplates have been mentioned in a claims report and they can tell you.

The fact that rigging might not be mentioned in an insurance policy just means it isn't a significant risk - for them.

For you on your boat, in the middle of the Atlantic, risk has an entirely different perspective.

[GarryD]

Wire safety lines - I was always lead to believe that wire safety lines were a no-no. If you stand on them they can roll and over the side you go!


Always used belt type - also gets over the problem of corrosion. Just take them off at the end of the season with the running rigging, as far as possible and borrow the wife's washing machine when she's out for the day.

[sck5]

Having lost a chainplate on a transatlantic (no warning, sounded kind of like a gunshot, in steady tradewind conditions) I would do whatever I could to minimize the risk, small though it might be. The chainplates were the only part of the rigging that hadnt been replaced and were only inspected. Happily, the mast stayed up and we had enough dyneema to rig something that got us to Trinidad but it could easily have gone the other way. That burst of adrenaline might be the most intense I ever had.

[RRJames]

When the first wire breaks is my practice. Which has been around 8 years. Unless I was planning extended bluewater voyaging. Then I'd replace all before leaving. My chain plates and fasteners are definitely overkill.

[Rotten Ricky]

Making assumptions without knowledge of the circumstances can be a dangerous thing. The reliability of rigging depends on many factors including risk, quality, correct sizing, harshness of its use and over what time period.

The riggers here in British Columbia that I speak with say that rigging up here - even old rigging - almost never fails because it is washed clean of salt by the frequent rain we get. One of them said that he had worked in the Caribbean for a while and said that it was usual to replace it every 3 years because of the salinity and moist air. The same happens in any moist, hot, saline area of the world. The rigging on my former boat shows no sign of deterioration at 45 years old - but it is a coastal cruiser. But I would change it and up-size it immediately if I was going off-shore.

The heavy and well-washed rigging - built to withstand the shock loading of a multi-hull - on my 20-year-old trimaran will long out-last me.

Stay safe everyone.

Cheers, RR.

[Aubrey]

Originally Posted by and4ew

Apologies in advance if this stirs up some strong opposing opinions. At least it's not an anchor discussion.

I have been sailing keel boats for about 20 years. Just recently I started hearing people making statements about replacing standing rigging every 7-10 years. I work in high-tech. My experience in my industry has been that when one way of doing things has worked perfectly well for a long time and then suddenly I start hearing of something different that needs to be done, it's usually because a specific vendor is pushing their new way hard, even if it isn't really required. In no way am I implying that's what's happening in the marine industry and I don't mean to offend anyone in the rigging industry.

That said, I am curious. Wouldn't standing rigging replacement depend a lot on how the boat is used, the type of rigging (stranded or solid stainless steel), what's the relative gauge of the rigging compared to the amount of sail? How flexible the mast is?

And finally, and most importantly, does it really need to be changed if it doesn't show signs of wear (I'm aware that some of it is hard to see).

Hello And4ew,
Since you have decades of experience, you've probably discovered by now that any question you put to fellow sailors will get a variety of often contradictory replies which, to boot, will all be correct in their own way. I sail a 24-year old Halllberg Rassy 42 F. I'm now into my second set of SS strand wire rigging. HR's are overengineered so the whole set up is "one size bigger". Even so, I opted to renew it some 10 years ago after a 20-month escapade from Europe to the Caribbean. I have it inspected every year by a reputable rigger who doesn't seem keen to re-do the whole thing. So far, so good, but I'm thinking I may renew it after the current season if Covid allows any prolonged cruising in the Med. It all depends on the use you've given the boat (racing vs rising), sea miles/years since the rigging was new, absence of signs that might indicate corrosion of fittings, frayed wires, etc. Take special care of fore and backstays and, just as the right time to take in a reef is when you first think about it, change the rigging if you have lingering doubts. I've experienced one dismasting (on someone else's boat) and it 'ain't' fun. Cheers.

[CassidyNZ]

Originally Posted by Aubrey

Take special care of fore and backstays and, just as the right time to take in a reef is when you first think about it, change the rigging if you have lingering doubts.

Curiosly (and maybe incorrectly), I have always considered the fore- and aft stays to be the least vulnerable in my rig with the cap shrouds being the wires that experience the highest loads. How often do I sit in the cockpit musing over how much stretch there is in the windward cap shroud as the leeward one flaps around?

By contrast, it is unusual to see any stretch in the forestay, visible only by the luff of the genoa falling away. The forestay is generally also the least inspected as on most modern sailboats, it is encased in a furler extrusion/sail track.

Anecdotally, I recall a marina neighbor years ago reporting that, while on a beam reach, the clevis pin at the bottom of his forestay had come out and just by the furler drum hooking under the pulpit frame, the rig stayed standing long enough for him to turn DDW and take all the load off. He successfully replaced the clevis pin and completed the passage without further incident.

Personally I had an inner lower stay bottle screw fail and to cut a long story short, after several further weeks at sea, that breakage eventually lead to the total loss of the boat.

So, if you have budget limitations and you feel a need to replace rigging, in my view you should concentrate on cap shrouds and lower stays, not fore and aft stays.

[HansChristian33]

Replace all stainless with Dyneema where possible and a lot of the issues of stainless go away, your boat will get rid of a serious amount of weight up high making it a little stiffer. Carry coils of spare Dyneeema and learn a few skills and you have an insurance policy as far as spares onboard that you can’t with stainless. Chainplates need to be inspected on my boat for my piece of mind ever 5 years.

[japawil]

Originally Posted by HansChristian33

Replace all stainless with Dyneema where possible and a lot of the issues of stainless go away, your boat will get rid of a serious amount of weight up high making it a little stiffer. Carry coils of spare Dyneeema and learn a few skills and you have an insurance policy as far as spares onboard that you can’t with stainless. Chainplates need to be inspected on my boat for my piece of mind ever 5 years.

Weight aloft: true

What “insurance policy” that can’t be replicated with spare SS wire and
norsman/sta-lok fittings?

[Boatguy30]

Originally Posted by mako

And what about the idea of switching from stainless wire to galvanized wire rigging?

Then you probably won’t get insurance which sorta answers the original question

[capt jgw]

Originally Posted by Cheechako

The Insurance requirement seems to come up over and over... I have NEVER had an insurance company even bring it up, at all. How many here have had them ask? (without asking)
Even if they did ask they wouldn't be smart enough to question chainplates.

Just curious? ... maybe it's the latest thing...

I've insured boats through Allstate for aboutt 40 years. It's quite apparent they don't know crap about boats. Never asked for a survey, don't care where I take the boat, don't care how old the rig is. And my current sailboat is 52 years old, they really should care. I've had a claim with them, they were great to deal with and paid more than I thought they would. But then again I referred a friend to them and he was told they no longer do new boat policies, just continue to service thier old customers. At least that agent anyway.
I did rerig my boat two years ago because the furler got damaged and you have to cut the head stay to replace it. I don't think it was ever done before so I did them all. 50 years was enough.