Standing Rigging-should I be worried?

[Captain Bill]

Hopefully I will have successfully attached 4 photos of my standing rigging. I'm wondering if I should be concerned about the level of corrosion at these swage fittings.

[Stumble]

I wouldn't be concerned so much as refuse to go sailing on that boat. Every picture show substantial corrosion damage, and it looks like it has been going on long enough to start pushing material out of the swags and run down the fittings. In addition it looks like you have visible material loss and staining in the wire as well as the fitting. Any of these problems indicate a grossly unsafe situation, all of them combined indicates its time to take the boat out of service until the problem is corrected.

[Captain Bill]

Originally Posted by Stumble

I wouldn't be concerned so much as refuse to go sailing on that boat. Every picture show substantial corrosion damage, and it looks like it has been going on long enough to start pushing material out of the swags and run down the fittings. In addition it looks like you have visible material loss and staining in the wire as well as the fitting. Any of these problems indicate a grossly unsafe situation, all of them combined indicates its time to take the boat out of service until the problem is corrected.

Would it change your opinion any If I told you that this was 316 stainless steel rigging purchased new and installed in November of 2014? This rigging was purchased from a highly recommended rigging shop. It been in the Bahamas for almost 3 months.

[Tayana42]

Bill, where are you located? In metro areas here (CA) particularly near the port of LA I get stuff running down my rigging that looks like rust. It's not the rigging but the particles in the air. Still, I'd have a rigging survey done. My last one cost under $300.


S/V B'Shert

[RTB]

That looks scary to me...worse than my 30+year old stuff. Maybe email your rigger and ask what's up. I think many of us considering new rigging are very concerned of the wire quality available today. Supposedly, it all comes from the same place (I think that's what I heard from a rigging shop recently).

Do you see candy striping also?

Ralph

[Captain Bill]

The sad part is that the rigging I replaced didn't have a mark on it. It was 14 years old and I replaced it out of caution due only to age. I'm going to email the vendor and see what their response is. We'll see if they stand by their product or not. I already have plans to go in the boat yard when I get back to the States. Either way I'll do a product and service review, what it will say is pretty much up to them.

There is some light candy striping.

[RTB]

Thanks, and looking forward to your report, Bill.

Ralph

[autumnbreeze27]

We have friends who had riggers replace their standing rigging on a 53' Amel and it's candy striping already.

Looks like it's not easy to find decent standing rigging these days.

[NahanniV]

Are the wires pitted ? Scrape away some of that rusty looking stuff and see what's underneath.

[Stumble]

Bill,

If anything knowing the rigging is only a few months old makes it worse. For an older boat to have that much staining is one thing, small bits of rust over a long period of time is bad. Substantial rust in a matter of months indicates something is critically wrong.

Candy striping alone is a serious concern, when combined with what you have...

I would be pretty close to parking the boat until the problem is fixed, and it is absolutely on them. No quality stainless should rust that quickly.

[Travis McGee]

This hits close to home since I'm nearly ready to re-rig my 48' cutter. I have Norseman terminals, not swages, but my 20 year old 1X19 wire is still clean and bright. I end-for-ended it a few seasons ago. None of my wires/terminals look as bad as that new but corroding wire.

Yikes! Where did the wire come from? What was the brand and the supplier? I'd hate to replace good-old wire for bad-new wire.

[neilpride]

Those swage terminals looks quite normal for the age, rust stains this days are the norm even if the rigging is not to old, i use the flat screwdriver and plier trick to spot wire strands broken or close to fail in the swage terminals, with the plier, just where the strands enter in the terminal, soft squeeze the wire with the plier , turn left to right soft to and if you see a strand separate from the rest is time to change the wire, same with the screwdriver, small and flat, try to squeeze the tip between the strands and pull soft out, if a strand is broken or close to break you can spot on with the screwdriver, clean the rust stains and check for cracks at the swage terminals, any small micro crack or a banana form taking place in the swage terminals call for replacement to... Cheers.....

[Captain Bill]

I have cleaned two of the swage connections this morning in an attempt to see if there's cable damage and the good news is that there does not appear to be any, at least that I can see with a hand held magnifying glass. I did however discover something that might shed some light on the issue. I discovered that there was some kind of sealant on the swage joint and the corrosion seems to be largely limited to that area. I'm not a metallurgist but my understanding was that you never wanted to cut off stainless steel from oxygen because it was the oxidation of the chromium atoms in the alloy that protected the steel. If one cut off the oxygen from the chromium the steel would corrode. The sealant appeared to be mostly clear and up about 1/4 inch on the cable but what I got out of the lower part was a bit thicker and looked white. I'm not sure if this was silicone sealant of something else. Can any of you engineering types that know a bit about stainless confirm or refute my thoughts on the effect of this sealant?

[Liunatic]

*Thread drift*

What is "candy striping"?

[NahanniV]

Silicone is often used in swages and mechanical terminals, yes it cuts off the oxygen, but it also keeps out the moisture and salt. Neutral cure silicone should be used as apposed to acid cure (smells like vinegar) which attacks the stainless.

Silicone tends to attract dirt (rust particles). A bit of coffee like staining on new stainless is common; It's not good, and you don't see it on properly cleaned and polished stainless, but it is common. You may be seeing that slight coffee like rust haze being washed down the wire and collecting at the swage.

Did you contact the rigger who did the work ?

Good Luck.
JM.