Can I replace guardrails myself?

[tudorsailor]

As my yacht is now 16 years old, I thought it time to replace the guardrails. Part of the reason is that the upper rail is plastic covered and there are areas of rustiness coming out from the edges of the plastic
The yacht is in Gouvia (Corfu). I have had a quote for €1000 to replace upper and lower rails with new 50m of 5mm wire + 14 forks and studs.
I wonder what it takes to crimp the forks and studs onto the wire. Can this be done with a hand held device or does it take a proper swaging machine that riggers would have?

TudorSailor

 

[sailorman]

cut the plastic off to see if there is actually a problem.
mine ate just ss wire with split plastic shroud protector where the wire passes through a stanchion

you might use staylock terminal fittings

 

[PuffTheMagicDragon]

Seems a lot.

Yesterday I was at a local Chandler (Malta) with a friend who wants to install some on his boat. The quote for 25metres wire, four swaged forks and four swaged studs plus rigging screw barrels and forks came to around €200. On that I can get him a discount.

One alternative that you might wish to consider is the use of swageless terminals of which there are various brands. Bulky and not cheap but the bottom line would be well below the £1000 that you were quoted.

 

[pvb]

I wonder what it takes to crimp the forks and studs onto the wire. Can this be done with a hand held device or does it take a proper swaging machine that riggers would have?

You can't do it by hand, it needs properly swaging. Or, as sailorman suggested, use DIY Sta-Lok terminals, or similar.

 

[GHA]

Considered dyneema? Splice it yourself, I redid mine with marlow D12. Very chafe resistant, I made up some short strops to go through the fairleads on the mooring lines to check and it stood up to many nasty nights with barely a visible mark.
Much nicer on the hands and the washing hanging out

About fiver a metre.

 

[merlin3688]

Most people now avoid plastic coated wire. You could buy the wire (4mm) and buy Sta Lok self fit terminals and do it all your self however the self fit terminals are expensive and would possibly work out more then a rigger making up with swage fittings.

 

[Pete7]

Did the top ones last winter and plan to do the lowers this season. Bought a complete kit from Aladins Cave in Bursledon for £50 a side. Actually picked them up but they will do mail order if you want. The staloks were simple to fit and the diagram quite straight forward.

http://www.aladdinscave.co.uk/wire/boat-guard-wire-rails/d-i-y-guard-wires.html

 

[upcountry2]

Jimmy Green Marine, pick what you need from their website, give them the measurements, job done, fully made to your requirements ready to fit, hardly any difference in price to faffing around making your own.
I had four made last year in 5mm for 39ft boat,less than £200 delivered to my door within 3 days.
Brilliant...

 

[Yngmar]

The price for the fittings is what makes it expensive, and at 14 forks and studs it sounds like you have one boarding gate, which do drive the cost up a lot because of the extra fittings needed. My current setup, as supplied originally from the yard has a grand total of 42 fittings, which sounds ridiculous, but is what you need with a boarding gate on each side plus the transom. That's 28 swaged eyes/studs, plus 8 turnbuckles to tension, plus 6 snapshackles for the gates, on two levels. I'm not keen on replacing it ;-)

For swaged fittings, you can't crimp it by hand, you need a proper roller swager, which is semi-portable (bit heavy at larger sizes). Same thing used to make up standing rigging.

Then there's swageless fittings, which you can do up with hand tools. The fittings cost a bit more than the swaged type, but they can be re-used and you don't need a swaging machine. You'll have to do one end in place, because they're always too wide to fit through the stanchion holes (unlike swaged studs, which can fit).

Then there's using bits of string (UHMWPE), which you can splice by hand and lash on with other string. Some love it, others hate it, the ISAF changed their recommendation to disallow it as they've been observed rapidly chafing through by running rigging "sawing" on them in some situations. You also need to protect it where it passes through stanchion holes.

Finally there's Parafil, a plastic sheated synthetic rope (Aramid), which requires special fittings and is a bit hard to find, but offers the nice smooth look and feel of sheathed wire rope without any of the hidden corrosion issues. This is what the RNLI lifeboats use. Bit expensive last I checked though.

Pete7's link seems like a very good deal - pre-swaged fittings on one end and a swageless one to install yourself for the other, after you cut the wire to length. Minimum of faff and definitely much cheaper than your quote and no problem to do yourself - I'd go with that.

 

[PaulRainbow]

You can't do it by hand, it needs properly swaging. Or, as sailorman suggested, use DIY Sta-Lok terminals, or similar.

Yes you can. I have an 8 ton hydraulic crimper that has just been used to modify my guard wires to fit gates.

 

[tudorsailor]

It might be worth buying a crimper for the saving I'd make. Can the crimper cope with the fittings for a 5mm diameter wire?

Would be interesting to out into hand luggage!

TudorSailor

 

[PaulRainbow]

It might be worth buying a crimper for the saving I'd make. Can the crimper cope with the fittings for a 5mm diameter wire?

Would be interesting to out into hand luggage!

TudorSailor

Did my 4mm one easily. The dies certainly far exceed what you'd need for 5mm. Also very handy for crimping lead terminals to cables, such as battery cables.

Good source of swage fittings (and other stainless stuff) is http://premierfittings.co.uk/

 

[pvb]

Yes you can. I have an 8 ton hydraulic crimper that has just been used to modify my guard wires to fit gates.

Isn't that a bit heavy to use on the boat?

But does it actually swage?

 

[jwilson]

I'd expect about £150 max each pair of guardwires ....... On a 10M boat (each wire about 8.5M) paid about £85 a pair two years ago.

 

[PaulRainbow]

Isn't that a bit heavy to use on the boat?

But does it actually swage?

Technically, no, as it's a crimper. The terminals are a pretty tight fit over the wire before crimping and i've crimped in two places, about an inch apart. I really can't see them letting go. I obviously wouldn't want to use it for rigging.

 

[ghostlymoron]

I would get them made up by the likes of Jimmy Green and supply one end fitting loose (either swage or stayloc). You can then fit them and thread then through you stantions either get local rigger to swage the final fitting or DIY if stayloc.

 

[GHA]

Then there's using bits of string (UHMWPE), which you can splice by hand and lash on with other string. Some love it, others hate it, the ISAF changed their recommendation to disallow it as they've been observed rapidly chafing through by running rigging "sawing" on them in some situations. You also need to protect it where it passes through stanchion holes.

Worth bearing in mind the asaf report was a while ago, materials have moved on. D12 max from marlow is the only one I have experience with but it is very chafe resistant, with a chafe resistant and uv coating.

https://www.marlowropes.com/product/d12-max-0

 

[Plevier]

Another alternative is to have one end fitted with a swaged stud that should pass through your stanchions. You then screw an eye onto the stud and secure with a lashing instead of a turnbuckle. In an emergency a lashing can be slashed a lot quicker than undoing a turnbuckle to lower the wires to lift a casualty over.

 

[DownWest]

Surprised that S3i have not been mentioned. Good kit at reasonable prices.

 

[ghostlymoron]

Will a swaged on stud fit through a stantions? Doesn't look like it. My guardrails have just a loop swaged on one end for the lashings to go through