Anyone Ever Used Stalocks for Rigging ?

[w1651]

I was looking to replace some rigging that is 5/16 and Stainless. I was looking at just cutting the wire close to the shackles and adding Stalocks to keep from replacing everything there. Anyone ever done this and tuned the rigging and mast after wards?
Any ideas and help would be appreciated.

[beetle]

Originally Posted by w1651

I was looking to replace some rigging that is 5/16 and Stainless. I was looking at just cutting the wire close to the shackles and adding Stalocks to keep from replacing everything there. Anyone ever done this and tuned the rigging and mast after wards?
Any ideas and help would be appreciated.

What, exactly, are you considering doing?

It sounds like you are talking about If you're talking about cutting existing, old, tensioned/set 1x19 rigging wire that supports the mast, and would like to cut (and thereby shorten) that wire, install a stalock terminal fitting on the end of that wire, and re-use the wire... am I right? If so, this is usually a really bad idea. The problem is that the old wire has stretched and hardened, and will not be happy if re-bent into the stalock terminal.

I do not understand where 'shackles' come into the picture, as I'm not aware that shackles are routinely used in standing rigging (unless you are describing rigging a very old wooden spar).

If I have it incorrect, please explain precisely what you are doing.

- rob/beetle

[S/V Alchemy]

I have 11 StaLoks on 5/16th wire. My rig is 23 years old, but the boat's never seen salt, and looks a lot better than my 38 year old rigging on the older boat (also, no salt, but starting to show age).

My plan before pushing off is to replace the lot with exactly the same setup, and to coil one lower, one upper, one backstay and one forestay into the forepeak as "insurance".

My point? If you are replacing the terminals, replace the wire. Then inspect yearly, but even in tropical steam, you shouldn't expect corrosion or wear for 10 years, unless you do solo Southern Ocean racing.

[svcambria]

Yeah, you can, with a StaLock long stud or long eye, whichever end you are replacing. I don't know, 'cuz I don't have any, but there might be a long fork as well. And/or putting another toggle in...
Don't follow the question about tuning the rigging - yes, you should, it is not that hard to do and is something you should know how to do...
If you are replacing a swaged terminal that has cracked, you really should consider replacing the wire as well at your earliest convenience.

Michael

[SariTimur]

You can and there are lots of boats with new rigging with a staylock on the bottom. But as said above it is better to replace the wire rather than just the swage. As the wire has some fatigue as well. When I made my first crossing money was tight so I bought a bunch of spare staylocksand extra toggles, one piece of wire equal to the length of the longest stay (which turned out to be a shroud) and fit one end before departure. We still replaced two swages before we got too far as they started to show cracking after a bunch of work. Once we got back to civilization I replaced all of the wire. If I was doing it again I would replace the wire before starting. Actually I kick myself as I just checked all of our rigging and turnbuckles again yesterday and wished I had a spare wire in the hold now and would have liked to replace the bobstay as that is often awash and 6 years old. But it is one of those things I forgot before leaving civilization. thus advice is easier to hand out then follow sometimes. So fingers crossed until we get somewhere where it is easy to ship in wire etc again. And it has been added to the list of things I would like.

cheers

Mark

[swagman]

We always carried staylocks for fixing a wire break when cruising as we know when wire chooses to go, it's invariably going to start where it enters a fixed swaged fitting.
With the slightly longer staylock we aimed to use the existing wire as opposed to carrying a full replacement rigging set.
Never did have to use them when cruising, but back in 1990 I had to use one to fix a wire that began unstranding when offshore racing, and despite the sensible suggestions above about replacing old wire asap, we actually left the staylock in place for the next 2 years without doing that and it did not break a second time.
Cheers
JOHN

[w1651]

Originally Posted by beetle

What, exactly, are you considering doing?

It sounds like you are talking about If you're talking about cutting existing, old, tensioned/set 1x19 rigging wire that supports the mast, and would like to cut (and thereby shorten) that wire, install a stalock terminal fitting on the end of that wire, and re-use the wire... am I right? If so, this is usually a really bad idea. The problem is that the old wire has stretched and hardened, and will not be happy if re-bent into the stalock terminal.

I do not understand where 'shackles' come into the picture, as I'm not aware that shackles are routinely used in standing rigging (unless you are describing rigging a very old wooden spar).

If I have it incorrect, please explain precisely what you are doing.

- rob/beetle

You have it right . My sailor talk is not up to par. But yes shorten the rigging by cutting at the fitting on deck and adding a stalock to reuse the rigging.

[beetle]

Originally Posted by w1651

You have it right . My sailor talk is not up to par. But yes shorten the rigging by cutting at the fitting on deck and adding a stalock to reuse the rigging.

That is done as an emergency/running repair if you have to, and is not the way to approach re-rigging a boat. Assuming your near a rig shop that can do the work, you're better off to have the shop supply new rigging built for you, and purchase additional materials to replace any one piece of standing rigging that might fail when you're offshore or have no access to a rigging shop.

I had my standing redone two years ago here in San Francisco, including turnbuckles, wire, and mast tangs. It turned out to be significantly more expensive to purchase swageless fittings and do the terminations myself as compared to purchasing regular swaged fittings and having the local rig shop do up the connections. So I had the rig shop supply the finished standing rigging complete using swaged fittings, along with turnbuckles and mast tangs.

I purchased and keep on board a set of hardware to replace the various wire sizes; I have a triple spreader rig and therefore have 3 different sizes of wire, stalock and norseman terminations (one for each wire size, sized to fit the mast tangs), and turnbuckles, plus 3 lengths of wire that can be cut down to fit any one wire that fails. This translates into less hardware than one might think: 3 open body turnbuckles, 3 swageless studs, 3 swageless Gibb T-balls, and 3 lengths of wire. I also have a length of vectran singlebraid sized to match the backstay - stretch is not as significant an issue for a backstay as compared to the shrouds or headstay.

- rob/beetle

[Mark Johnson]

I agree, replace the wires... Regarding Sta locs: After forming the wires and opening them up to inspect for overlaps, or a wire in the slot, Fill the cavity the correct amount first. (ABOUT 60%) Do not get any on the rest of the threads!

These things SHOULD'VE been in the instructions for StaLocs:

DO NOT USE SILICONE, USE 5200! You will have no problems later if you need to re-use it.

Also, USE RED LOCTITE, NOT BLUE! (same as above)

And, if you under fill with caulk, and it doesn't ooze out of the wire end of the barrell, ALL the way around, then you under filled it, and need to re do it. When RE doing the caulk. 100% of the 5200 and red locktite MUST be removed from the threads on both parts FIRST!!! The combination of 5200 and loctite on the threads will never set up, but just act as a permanent lubricant.

Done correctly, these things are great! Many are not done correctly...
Mark

[witzgall]

I do not have any experience with Staylocks, but only Himod fittings. One nice thing is that they are not designed to be gooped up. The idea behind this is that water gets in, water gets out. You can easily take it apart and inspect. Plus I hate all forms of goop!

Chris

[feelsgood]

I have fitted Sta-Lok fittings on yachts for longer than I want to remember and can tell you that they are without question the strongest type of fitting you can use on yacht rigging. As to the filling with any tye of glup I am against it. the only thing I have ever used is Vasaline just a light brush on the wire and fitting and put it together and in over 40 years I have NEVER had one fail or come apart. We carry spares and have only once used a double fitting when a back stay parted in the Pacific we were lucky to keep the mast and fitted the Sta_Lok fitting which gave us a good strong back stay which got us to New Zeland where we replaced it. The main reason people dont use them is cost otherwise all yacht builders would use them.