Getting Rigging Done on a Budget. Ideas?

[alansmith]

When you have a nice sail track like a Tidesmarine you can ease the main halyard and drop the main the appropriate amount of feet to your reef. Then cinch down your reefing lines for that reef point. That extra mainsail is corralled on top of the boom. Won’t take more than 5-10 minutes.

Also check out Colligo’s Continous line furler. Harken, Profurl, and many others make competitions ones. I am dumping my ancient Profurl and going with a torque rope headstay. I will use soft shackles to bend my headsail on with. Then use a L line continous furler. All in it all out. I will probably by a much smaller headsail for heavier winds. But haven’t made up my mind.

One thing to remember on cats. It is a bee-otch to tack over if you don’t have enough fore-sail up. Keep it as simple as you can.

About the Milwaukee. The gentleman was correct about being heavy. But at a quarter of the cost of other solutions....it is okay. Your 90 pounder ain’t gonna be using it... fo sure. He he.

One set up I saw and liked.... an electric wench set up near the mast that was used for anchoring and mainsail deployment. Hmmmm?!?!

[44'cruisingcat]

Originally Posted by tarian

.......and as fabricating yourself or getting someone to do it , again madness the mast, boom etc are made for that boat i.e tolerances and weight and material and size have all been laid down by a marine architect and cad cut and mm perfect.
:

Absolute rubbish! My rig was fabricated in a backyard by friends, and assembled by me.

You can fit a taller or shorter mast than specified in the plans. Different sections too.

It's not rocket science.

[44'cruisingcat]

Originally Posted by GILow

I’m a pretty decent welder but I wouldn’t tackle something like this project. The forces on a 60 foot mast will be very, very serious, beyond most amateurs.

Like others have suggested, I’d be looking for something secondhand but I would go for new standing rigging, either dyneema or swageless.

I am inclined to make the uncomfortable observation that this is one area of a boat where saving money can have serious consequences if it is not done right.

Rigs are engineered so the welds are not heavily loaded.

The welded parts, like spreader ends, mast cranes, sheave boxes are pretty straightforward, and the welds themselves not critical. ie, spreaders are basically under compression, the welding isn't under any significant load.

The only welds Id say were critical would be the ones associated with the gooseneck. Which is stainless steel on my boat.

[Tupaia]

Originally Posted by 44'cruisingcat

Absolute rubbish! My rig was fabricated in a backyard by friends, and assembled by me.

You can fit a taller or shorter mast than specified in the plans. Different sections too.

It's not rocket science.

Totally agree.

Has the OP thought about wood epoxy wing mast?

[44'cruisingcat]

To give an idea of materials costs, my 16 metre 235 section bare mast extrusion cost $1500. The boom section $800. But you could use round tube for the boom, much cheaper. 8 metres of spreader section (enough to do the forebeam A frame also) $200.

There was 1.5 m round tube for jumpers, and sundry 12mm and 6mm plate, a little bar stock for jumper ends, maybe $300.

The main halyard sheave was quite expensive, about $100, other sheaves for headsail, spinnaker, and reefing lines were cheaper.

The Stainless steel rigging, with swageless terminals for shrouds and forestay, all diamond stays, jumpers etc swaged, including T ball fittings and backing plates.was a bit over $5000. But these days I'd do it in dyneema.

There's a hundred or so bucks worth of monel rivets, sundry nuts, bolts and screws...

[Chotu]

Originally Posted by Tupaia

Totally agree.

Has the OP thought about wood epoxy wing mast?

He has. Also thought about an epoxy carbon mast. I have a lot of experience doing resin infusion. But I also has pretty severe allergic asthma reactions around any amine based hardeners. Any further work on the boat involving epoxy is to be avoided or outsourced. I may do a few small things with space suit and supplied outside air respirator, but even taking the suit off has a chance of putt me into the hospital. So the less epoxy the better.

[GILow]

Originally Posted by 44'cruisingcat

Rigs are engineered so the welds are not heavily loaded.



The welded parts, like spreader ends, mast cranes, sheave boxes are pretty straightforward, and the welds themselves not critical. ie, spreaders are basically under compression, the welding isn't under any significant load.



The only welds Id say were critical would be the ones associated with the gooseneck. Which is stainless steel on my boat.

All good points, but I repeat my observation that I wouldn’t tackle it. I know enough about welding to know how it goes wrong in interesting ways. If the OP is an experienced welder, then sure, easy project, as you say.

But they are not, so they either pay someone who is (and preferably someone who understands masts and the associated environment) or look to something that does not need welding.

As an aside, I admit, the rigging prices you quoted are interesting.

I’ve just bought all new standing rigging with swageless terminals for my 50 foot mast and I really struggled to keep it to AU$5K. However I suspect there are a few more rigging components for my mast, being a cutter with dual forestays, while the wire itself was relatively cheap.

[44'cruisingcat]

I should have mentioned, i built the rig 10 years ago.

The standing rigging is from Bluewave, on the Gold coast. Very competitive prices.

[grahamb]

.…….I know of 2 masts in the range requested....in Australia...….pm me if interested and I will contact owner....

[GILow]

Originally Posted by 44'cruisingcat

I should have mentioned, i built the rig 10 years ago.

The standing rigging is from Bluewave, on the Gold coast. Very competitive prices.

Didn’t know about them, I wonder how they would have stacked up in my recent rig shopping.

I went with KZMarine in NZ. They were about half the price of the best Stalok price I found.

We had a chance to compare equivalent dismantled fittings from Stalok and KZMarine the other day and we couldn’t see any difference.

[Boatguy30]

As a rigger and boat owner, I'd say the secret is to buy a much smaller boat!

[Chotu]

Originally Posted by Boatguy30

As a rigger and boat owner, I'd say the secret is to buy a much smaller boat!

Too uncomfortable as seas act up. Buy the biggest boat you can afford is my philosophy. I enjoy a smooth ride.

However, if you want any extra rigging work, we could talk. Maybe you know some sources? I'm sure working with a rigger would be better than going it alone hoping I get it to work out

[Chotu]

Originally Posted by grahamb

.…….I know of 2 masts in the range requested....in Australia...….pm me if interested and I will contact owner....

You guys have EVERYTHING in Australia. Green with envy. Ha ha ha. I'm sure it's not cost effective to get something from there to the USA. Thank you, however.

[Chotu]

Originally Posted by 44'cruisingcat

To give an idea of materials costs, my 16 metre 235 section bare mast extrusion cost $1500. The boom section $800. But you could use round tube for the boom, much cheaper. 8 metres of spreader section (enough to do the forebeam A frame also) $200.

There was 1.5 m round tube for jumpers, and sundry 12mm and 6mm plate, a little bar stock for jumper ends, maybe $300.

The main halyard sheave was quite expensive, about $100, other sheaves for headsail, spinnaker, and reefing lines were cheaper.

The Stainless steel rigging, with swageless terminals for shrouds and forestay, all diamond stays, jumpers etc swaged, including T ball fittings and backing plates.was a bit over $5000. But these days I'd do it in dyneema.

There's a hundred or so bucks worth of monel rivets, sundry nuts, bolts and screws...

This is just absolutely amazing. I did a little looking around and found small mast sections for $115 a foot or $6900 before tax. Just for a blank extrusion. Have to keep looking.

[GILow]

Originally Posted by Chotu

This is just absolutely amazing. I did a little looking around and found small mast sections for $115 a foot or $6900 before tax. Just for a blank extrusion. Have to keep looking.

44CC forgot to mention those prices were 10 years old.

A fair bit has changed since then.