Fitting a Solent/ Emergency Stay

[adamlang]

Does anyone have a ball park figure for how much a boat yard might charge to fit a Solent stay on a 34 foot yacht, using 6mm wire and a block and tackle for tension? It involves a new fitting at the top of the mast, and on the deck but the existing spinnaker halyards are used.

We asked a boat yard to do this without a quote, and were a little surprised at the eventual cost. I know its a very general question but a rough ball park, or range would be quite helpful, if only to know that the cost is reasonable. Has anyone had similar work carried out in the past few years?

Thanks.

 

[Fr J Hackett]

Mast up or mast down, new masthead fitting, reinforcement of the below deck fitting? All things that would add to the cost, labour at £40 to £60 an hour for 3,4 or 5 hours.
How long is a piece of string. I would be surprised even with a simple arrangement you got away with less than £400.

 

[lw395]

I would think the deck fitting's reinforcement could rack the bill up very easily.
If you want that to be as strong as the stay.
The design work for a proper job might be over £500.

 

[Tranona]

I would think the deck fitting's reinforcement could rack the bill up very easily.
If you want that to be as strong as the stay.
The design work for a proper job might be over £500.

The OP has already had the job done and surprised at the cost, although having seen the responses may not still be surprised!

 

[jwilson]

12 years ago £550 on 35-footer, new top fitting on mast, 6mm wire, block and tackle to tension, and a big U-bolt fitted to existing S/S bow fitting six inches aft of the main forestay. Also a new 12mm polyester halyard and a cleat on mast. Used existing spinnaker slots/sheaves on mast. All done by local rigging company.

 

[robertj]

£1900 at a guess

 

[laika]

I didn't intentionally delete my previous post but that always seems to happen to me when I try to edit a post to add more detail using an android phone...

I'm guessing we're all intrigued to know what was included in the OP's stay fitting and what it actually cost....

 

[adamlang]

So it cost £1050. With a further charge for mast stepping on its way. The deck was already strong enough as the stay fitting is near the anchor locker bulkhead so that wasn't necessary.

However its a little complicated because there was a fair few other things being done as well and the labour cost of 10 hours (at £51 per hour) is all together as one line on the bill. So as well as the storm stay, we had the back stay replaced, and the baby stay replaced and changed from a sliding adjustable one to a fixed one. The cost above also includes bending on the sails, and replacing the mast gaiter with new tape. We also asked for some rigging screw covers to be fitted, which has been done but they are very tight and can't be lifted for inspection. We also had the rigger play around with how the mast sits on the keel moving its position to a different notch - in order to change the rake on the mast and allow the forestay to be better tensioned. We've not yet sailed it but we expect this has been done well - and was possibly a bit of a pain with a couple of changes needed - maybe why they're not asking for the cost of mast stepping just yet.

All in all I don't think this outrageous (though happy to be told otherwise), if a little more than we perhaps expected - I'll tell my dad to get a quote next time.

Thanks everyone for the replies.