Stannding Rigging Change

[Longhair]

Well I am back online again. I made it to my boat; I am sip’n on a cold one reflecting on my first month living on the water. Now to my question, I am to the point were I am thinking about standing rigging. My boat is a 33’ sloop rig with stepped mast, I have rebbeded all my chain plates and have decided to replace they shrouds and stays, I have decided to use Norsemen fittings and done the math in Brian Tosses Apprentice Handbook but have not selected which type of wire to use. The old lower shrouds are 7/32” wire and all the rest is ¼”.

Questions

1. What wire is best given I want to sail in the Caribbean ?

2. Is it possible to replace the rigging one at a time and do it with stepping down my mast?

3. Is it best to replace the lower shrouds with ¼” wire so I will only have one size to carry spares for?

Thanks in advance for your help.

Fair Winds,

Matt

[By Invitation]

1. What wire is best given I want to sail in the Caribbean ?

Don't know if there is a real answer to this question - I don't think where you sail has any bearing on what rigging you select.

Is it possible to replace the rigging one at a time and do it with stepping down my mast?

Sure it is, You just need to be REAL CAREFUL in using your halyards as temporary stays as you do this.

Is it best to replace the lower shrouds with ¼” wire so I will only have one size to carry spares for?

Makes perfect sense to me, oversizing a stay never hurts.

Hope this helps

[Pblais]

The rigger that I hired to replace a forestay pretty much says that really all wire is te same HOWEVER.

1. Factories that make SS wire make a whole lot more steel as the market for SS cable is tiny compared to steel cable. What that means is your SS wire sits around the factory with all the steel dust around and it collects in the smallest places - like the space between your strands of SS cable. This leads to accelleated rusting of your SS cable down the road. So you really do want the cable to be as fresh as possible.

You can use all the same wire if you like. Mine is all 9 / 32 even though some of the stays could have been sized at 1/4. It can be easier for you to just order a lot of the largest size you need. It really won't hurt to over size th cable but it really won't help either. Smaller would be lighter aloft.

The new staylock fittings are a lot easier to use than the old ones. You really can't mess them up. Don't forget to use both marine sealant and Locktite in each fitting. You don't want water collecting inside the fitting or wicking into the threads. If you already have staylock fittings you may be able to just replace the wedges. You never reuse the wedges.

[Longhair]

Thanks all for the help....matt

[Weyalan]

I am not going to disagree with anythig that has been posted here, but just thinking about your question did give me pause to wonder.

It had not occurred tome that people would be carrying spare shrouds (or, indeed, any spare standing rigging). It seems to me that you can carry too many spares, after all, space on a cruising boat is usually rather limited. I mean, it seems unlikely that one would bust a shroud without having done or doing significant damage to a spreader and or the mast....ain't gonna carry a spare mast, no? I would hazard a guess that one could jury rig standing rigging using Vectran or even Spectra, or, at a pinch, halyards. Is the extra weight in spare standing rigging really worth it?

Furthermore, on the subject of "upsizing" wire gauges. It might only be a tiny thing, but using larger gauge wire for your shrouds will have a negative impact on your righting moment. A relatively small negative impact, to be sure, but given that some relatively well known production boats do not seem to have particularly good righting moment anyway....

Like I say, not disagreeing with the learned people here, just thinking out loud...

[GordMay]

I’m generally a “more & bigger is better” type of guy, but Weyalan raises good issues, that require thoughtful consideration.

[GMac]

Good train of thought there
Weyalan. Works for me :-)

[Longhair]

Good stuff to think about. I am not up sizing my rigging, Jus tthe lower shrouds. I agree about changing the RM but I think the lowers only would not effect the RM. I will carry wire as long as the longest wire on the boat plus some new wedges for the Norsemen fittings.

Again thanks and as always the different opionons is what make this forum a great tool for me.

fair winds,

[Alan Wheeler]

I am no expert, but with all the rigging hassles I have been going through over the last few months, I am quickly getting there

When you mention "lower shrouds" I am presuming you are refering to the inner stays???

"upper shroud" goes to the highest point on the mast, depending on rigg type, but often it goes to the mast head.
"lower shroud" follows this one, goes through the first spreader and terminates to the mast at the base of the second spreader.
"inner stays" usually terminate to the mast below the first (lower) spreader. The base termination is fore and aft respectively.

Inners are their to support the lower mast level and to control bend in the lower mast area slightly. They can be much lighter in size compared to the shrouds as they don't carry the same loading. There is no benifit to a heavier gauge wire to be used here. If one of these wires ever break, you are up the pervibial creek in a barbed wire cannoo with out the paddle. In other words, the rigg would have gone over the side anyway. In the event that you did lose one of these and only one of them, then a temporary repair of an inner with a heavier wire gauge is fine anyway.

As already mention, where do you stop with spares. You have to draw a line somewhere. Or we would all end up towing a barge behind us for spares.If it got to that stage, we may as well tow a spare boat. It's what multihullers do you know, multihullers are just parinoid mono sailers that carry along a spare.

[Longhair]

Wheels,

It is the inner stays I am refering to. Thanks for the correction. I find in Tosses book that he said the inner stays can be changed to the same size as all the others. I am going to change them just to keep things simple on spares. Be a newbie to crusing I will carry alot of extra do dads I don't need. Thanks again all.