cutting away standing rigging after dismasting

[Daydream believer]

by shaped blades do you mean curved?

Mine are curved to pull the wire into the cut, rather than straight and pushing it out.

Correct but i have never seen evidence of anything being pushed out
As i said earlier -- they work
But they have not been used for anything else & are not distorted & have no chips out of the blades so the edges meet correctly
My rigging screws are the open pattern so they would probably cut them as well if one took 2 cuts

 

[tolhurstorganic]

When I built Naida I used a 30" Forge Steel bolt cropper from Screwfix (less than £40) for cutting the rigging some of it was 12mm 9 x 19, cut very cleanly and first hit no problem. Still cut 12mm now so I would trust them to do the same again at least once. Not sure if they would cope the same with 12mm rod rigging though, but then if you can afford that sort of gear you can afford to buy decent cutters at £300+.

 

[wklein]

I have a cordless makita grinder and have used it to cut all sorts of rgging up t0 16mm dyform. You could easily cut through a whole rig with one battery. keep mine in a peli case when cruising and comes in handy for all sorts which is the advantage over specialist tools. 350w inverter will charge it in half an hour.

 

[sailor211]

Pull the split and clevis pins out? Or hacksaw through the rigging screws rather than the wire.

This is what I have done. It works. Easy and quick.

You will be surprised how horrid the motion is. I was throwing up a lot. Have your harness to hand.

Also have your emergency lights available fishing boats seam to aim at you. Emergency VHF aerial or wire coat hanger same reason.

Knife to cut through the halyards
Hacksaw to go through the cables in the mast . Instrument and light cables were tough. Radar would be very tough. Do not fuse everything / kill batteries.

Also foil on reefing will be a pain pin is easiest.


Spanner to get the boom off it helps for the jury rig. Particularly if you do not have a spinning pole.
Have you a sail for the jury rig?. We used no 3 on its side. If no spare jib a sharp knife to keep some sail will help. We lost mast mid-channel and sailed to the mooring.

 

[Phoenix of Hamble]

This is what I have done. It works. Easy and quick.

You will be surprised how horrid the motion is. I was throwing up a lot. Have your harness to hand.

Also have your emergency lights available fishing boats seam to aim at you. Emergency VHF aerial or wire coat hanger same reason.

Knife to cut through the halyards
Hacksaw to go through the cables in the mast . Instrument and light cables were tough. Radar would be very tough. Do not fuse everything / kill batteries.

Also foil on reefing will be a pain pin is easiest.


Spanner to get the boom off it helps for the jury rig. Particularly if you do not have a spinning pole.
Have you a sail for the jury rig?. We used no 3 on its side. If no spare jib a sharp knife to keep some sail will help. We lost mast mid-channel and sailed to the mooring.

Some really good advice in there.... i'd not thought about isolating power to masthead before cutting wires.... thanks!

 

[prv]

why did he "Have to sign off" nothing to do with him imo

Erm, because he's an MCA surveyor?

If you have the type of boat that the MCA require to be surveyed, then obviously it is an MCA surveyor's business that you have the kit the MCA requires. I'm puzzled why you would think otherwise.

Pete

 

[Steve C Cronin]

I harbour a crazy idea! Angle grinder with "INOX" disc running from either inverter or genny.

Told you it was a crazy idea!

 

[Kelpie]

I harbour a crazy idea! Angle grinder with "INOX" disc running from either inverter or genny.

Told you it was a crazy idea!

Did you read any of the other posts?

 

[Talulah]

Largest Felcro cutters we found useless when cutting 10mm rigging on board. You just can't get a good enough purchase to 'drop' on to the cutters.
I have seen them used on 10mm rigging by a rigger. This confirmed that they would be no good out on deck and even if you did succeed in cutting one or two lengths you wouldn't have the energy left to do the others even if they were in an approriate location.
We have the 'Shoot-IT' device on board. Takes Hilti nail gun cartridges to sheer the rigging with a bolt. Have tried and it's very effective.
Far more practical though is the cordless angle grinder with a thin cutting disc. Takes only moments.
We have the Makita LiIon 18V cordless. Make sure you get a LiIon battery model so you don't have to worry about batteries going flat over time. The Makita 18V LiIon drills and angle grinder on board whilst expensive are just so useful to have around.

 

[sailorman]

Erm, because he's an MCA surveyor?

If you have the type of boat that the MCA require to be surveyed, then obviously it is an MCA surveyor's business that you have the kit the MCA requires. I'm puzzled why you would think otherwise.

Pete

I missed the MCA bit

 

[nimrod1230]

Lots of good ideas here, thanks. Don't assume a big boat means lots of money as costs rise dramatically with size and in my case need careful management. My original idea of the cordless grinder sounds practical and a tool that has multiple uses makes sense though I can't think off hand what else an angle grinder might be used for. As ever, thanks for your thoughts, Terry.

 

[Neil_Y]

Cordless grinder sounds a great idea, the rig cutting is something that concerned me on passages. I bought a big set of bolt cutters and tested them on my old rigging they were around £80.00 I was advised not to get cheap ones by the rigger. I also had three hacksaws fitted with new (good) blades, thinking that I would want to be changing blades in that situation. The cartridge explosive cutters seem like a very good idea.

 

[Daydream believer]

Whilst a hacksaw may seem like a good idea it has to be said that a lot of people are not " practical" with their hands
That is not meant to be an insult but is a fact of life
To cut something with a hacksaw it has to be held firmly because if it moves " mid cut" it causes the blade to jam & possibly break
To use a hacksaw properly it needs to be held in 2 hands one front & one at the end of the saw with the metal held in a vice
This gets the neatest recipricating motion
However, balancing on a rolling deck in bad conditions may mean holding the wire in one hand & the saw in the other
This is a recipe for a broken blade
It takes several minutes to go below grab another blade & fit it
Whilst it may seem a good idea ( yachting monthly says it is but did not do it in panic, seasick situation) i am not so sure it will be successful for everyone

 

[vyv_cox]

Having enough hands to do the job is a valid point. A friend was dismasted off the north of Anglesey in quite boisterous conditions. While trying to cut the rigging with a big bolt cutter he dropped it overboard. Ever since then we have had a wrist lanyard attached to ours, just in case.

 

[Daydream believer]

Having enough hands to do the job is a valid point. A friend was dismasted off the north of Anglesey in quite boisterous conditions. While trying to cut the rigging with a big bolt cutter he dropped it overboard. Ever since then we have had a wrist lanyard attached to ours, just in case.

Here is another tip. Do not fall in with heavy bolt croppers tied to your wrist
The crew would not be able to cut you free

 

[Gwylan]

Which planet?

Had this exact discussion with MCA surveyor who suggested a 240v angle grinder and a cheap 2-stroke generator. - I was just over £150 for the pair.

I try to imagine the scene,

it is rubbish weather and things have got boisterous
something breaks, well the mast actually
full sail dangling in the water and everything going wrong fast
maybe a crew man injured or over the side......

Oh, hang on a minute, I'll get the genny out of the cockpit locker. Once it is started I can go and find the angle grinder and the extension lead.
Oh and where is that funny tool for changing the discs, did we get spare disks after we used them last winter to hack up the old anchor chain?.......
No problem we'll have all that rigging out of the way in no time..

Yes and we all lived happily ever after........

Bolt croppers and a fear of imminent death should get me moving

 

[prv]

It takes several minutes to go below grab another blade & fit it

The overall point is fair enough - but you shouldn't be going below to look for more blades in this situation. They should be taped (individually, so you don't drop the bundle when you rip one off!) to the frame.

Pete

 

[vyv_cox]

Here is another tip. Do not fall in with heavy bolt croppers tied to your wrist
The crew would not be able to cut you free

As ex-canoe surfers, we had a spare paddle lanyard that was ideal for the job. It is attached to the croppers with a knot but attached to the wrist with a nice padded velcro strap.

 

[prv]

I try to imagine the scene,

it is rubbish weather and things have got boisterous

Nah, that's not the scene he was imagining. The scene he was addressing happens in an office, with someone looking down a sheet of requirements and saying "is there means to disconnect a fallen mast?" and the answer "yes, 240v grinder + genset", "good, tick".

There was a thread in the mobo forum recently where they were getting their big boats surveyed for regs compliance (not sure if it's for charter or because they're over 24 metres). Some of the things they talked about seemed to be purely token items to tick the box, rather than genuinely useful kit.

On the boat we've just bought, the lower half of the washboard (up to about waist height) has a label saying "do not remove at sea". Clearly nobody is ever going to obey that, but the label is a means to satisfy the rule about minimum height of the hatch threshold which is otherwise slightly too low.

Pete.

(When I say nobody will obey the label, I don't mean they would never fit the washboard. But if they decided to, in really rough conditions (it's a high and well-protected Scandinavian cockpit), it wouldn't be because a little label told them to.)

 

[sailorman]

Perhaps as a MCA Surveyor he was used to shipping & not small yachts

Nah, that's not the scene he was imagining. The scene he was addressing happens in an office, with someone looking down a sheet of requirements and saying "is there means to disconnect a fallen mast?" and the answer "yes, 240v grinder + genset", "good, tick".

There was a thread in the mobo forum recently where they were getting their big boats surveyed for regs compliance (not sure if it's for charter or because they're over 24 metres). Some of the things they talked about seemed to be purely token items to tick the box, rather than genuinely useful kit.

On the boat we've just bought, the lower half of the washboard (up to about waist height) has a label saying "do not remove at sea". Clearly nobody is ever going to obey that, but the label is a means to satisfy the rule about minimum height of the hatch threshold which is otherwise slightly too low.

Pete.

(When I say nobody will obey the label, I don't mean they would never fit the washboard. But if they decided to, in really rough conditions (it's a high and well-protected Scandinavian cockpit), it wouldn't be because a little label told them to.)