Data\statistics on rig failure wanted.

[CharlesSwallow]

Firstly, has anyone here ever experienced a standing rigging failure whilst at sea?
Was it a cap or a fore-aft wire? Was it unexpected or did you have an inkling of possible failure beforehand?

Goo Jite

CHAS

 

[William_H]

Rigging wire failure

A good question though it has been covered many times here.
At our club over last 10 years there have been 4 failures of rigging wire all while sailing (sheltered waters) all unexpected, all with old rigging ie over 20 years old. All were side stays intermediate and cap shrouds and all destroyed the mast. One was on a heavy 26 fter other 3 were on 22 fters and wire was appropriate sized for those boats.
The point being rigging wire does fail with age not related to loads or use. One of those boats had been on water rigged virtually but not sailed for 15 years. There is no warning ie individual strands breaking and I think all failures were at the swage itself where the wire entered swage. So possibly shortening the wire with a new swage would improve life but really the cost of wire is not so high compared to cost of new mast. olewill

 

[yoda]

My friends rig failed 500nm from Antigua when the backstay bottle screw failed in a gust (not excessive) of wind. Stainless bottlescrew threads ar prone to stretch and ultimately failure unlike bronze.

Yoda

 

[Sea Devil]

Firstly, has anyone here ever experienced a standing rigging failure whilst at sea?
Was it a cap or a fore-aft wire? Was it unexpected or did you have an inkling of possible failure beforehand?

Goo Jite

CHAS

My lower spreaders started to fail in the Marquesa islands - South Pacific - the individual wire strands started to break off at the swage into the mast fitting... got down to about 3 wires in the end!! I was able to buy a load of stainless Uclamps and bind a spare bit of wire on as well as supporting the mast with various rope fittings... Went on like that till I got to Tahiti where there were riggers etc....

The problem appeared slowly with 3 or 4 broken wire strands appearing all of a sudden then slowly another would appear .... The problem was caused in Gibraltar where I had totally re-rigged the boat. The yard (which is now closed) had used a commercial swage machine which is intended for galvanised wire as used on power pylons rather than a dedicated stainless yacht swage machine

 

[Hampus]

I've had one cracked (almost in half) swage at the top of the mast on a 27 feet boat.

We currently have 5! cracked (longitudinal) swages on our 41 ft ketch. They were all fine when we bought her a year ago. After 2 months of cruising last year they are now cracked open. The rig is 30 years old but previous owners didn't do much sailing. We'll be crossing the Atlantic this fall and, needless to say, we're having the standing rigging replaced.

/Hampus

 

[maxi]

Lost the mast on an Endurance 37, inshore in about 20knts of wind.

The failure was of a clevis pin attaching the mainmast backstay to the monkey plate above the backstay bifurcation. This was located some 14' above the cockpit and had been totally encapsulated in self-amalgamating tape.

The (recovered) clevis pin showed clear signs of being cracked for some considerable time before failing. "Possibly", the encapsulating of the fitting, contributed to crevice corrosion.

Expensive exercise all for the cost of a £2 clevis pin!!!

 

[halfway]

Never seen a mast that has actually gone, they are mostly at the bottom of the sea. But I have seen many boats with some wire strands broken.

From my observations, it is generally the top swage. Or the top mast fitting.

There is always one thing in common. The fitting is jammed in some way. If it is a T piece then it is binding to the mast fitting or the mast. If it is a tang it is bent or made to the wrong angle.

Just look up at the masts in the marina, you will see that quite a few have the swage out of alignment with the wire. Those are the boats that fail.

Other than the wire, the only other failure I have seen, a few times, is the chainplates. The bit you can not see inside the deck.

 

[alan_d]

The forestay parted on my 29ft Konsort in Rothesay Bay (does that count as "at sea"?) while on a beam reach in a force 4, the first year I had the boat. Apparently it had come unscrewed inside the foil for the genoa. I immediately dropped the main and the mast remained in place, thanks I suspect to the babystay. We recovered the genoa from the water, rigged a spare halyard as a replacement forestay and motored back to Kip, where I got a new forestay and roller reefing gear fitted.

There was no immediate warning of failure, but in retrospect I should have paid more attention to the fact that the forestay seemed slightly too long when the boat was rigged for the first time.