Galvanised standing rigging?

[ducked]

"
Cheers for that.

Am I right in understanding then, that the bottle screws will/should be replaced regardless of the type of wire?

If going to galvanised rigging does it then make sence to replace the chainplates with galvanised steel ones? It seems that if one were to include that in your calculations the cost effectiveness of a change is gone.

Cheers
Charles

"Yes to q's one and two, and your conclusion looks inevitable!

<hr width=100% size=1>my opinion is complete rubbish, probably.

I assume the anticipated issue is galvanic corrosion due to incompatible metals? I note that Sta-loc say their replacable fittings aren't suitable for galvanised wire, presumably for this reason.

Sounds like a job for deadeyes, which won't suffer from crevice corrosion at thread roots, or any other corrosion (maybe UV damage to the cordage?) and should electrically isolate the chainplates from the wire pretty thoroughly.

I understand these are making a comeback for use with supertechno synthetic standing rigging, so you'd be future proofed. Of course they arent wood any more, and they call them something supertechno that I forget, and charge accordingly, but they are still deadeyes.

I suppose there would also be a potential galvanic corrosion issue aloft, if attaching to an aluminium mast, Less salt up there but harder to inspect.

How is that addressed?

Lanyards?

 

[Plum]

I assume the anticipated issue is galvanic corrosion due to incompatible metals? I note that Sta-loc say their replacable fittings aren't suitable for galvanised wire, presumably for this reason.

Sounds like a job for deadeyes, which won't suffer from crevice corrosion at thread roots, or any other corrosion (maybe UV damage to the cordage?) and should electrically isolate the chainplates from the wire pretty thoroughly.

I understand these are making a comeback for use with supertechno synthetic standing rigging, so you'd be future proofed. Of course they arent wood any more, and they call them something supertechno that I forget, and charge accordingly, but they are still deadeyes.

I suppose there would also be a potential galvanic corrosion issue aloft, if attaching to an aluminium mast, Less salt up there but harder to inspect.

How is that addressed?

Lanyards?

No, if you are going to use galvanised wire, hand splice it and use galvanised bottle-screws.

 

[Chiara’s slave]

Do people still use galvanised? Every gaffer I see these days has gone for Dyneema. It looks right, needs no maintenance, is a DIY install, just needs careful inspection.

 

[DownWest]

I cut my teeth making the galvanised rigging for my father's designs. ran them up with a Talurite press, including the wire with a plastc coating. I was early teens at the time..
Great friend rigged his heavy gaff ketch with galv, hand splicing all of it. Not for wimps..
I did sort the SS rigging on a big ketch after one of the swages let go and frightened the crew witless. Inner forestay, so didn't comprosmise the rig. Wire was OK, but the Italian swages were awefull. all sorts of crevice corrosion in every lower swage, dye tested all, but the uppers were fine? . Replaced with Norseman fittings and SS extension bars to make up the difference after cutting off the swages.
I would be happy to use galve, but haven't recently. Current built is free standing masts.

 

[William_H]

No comment on galvanised wire, no experience, but I would not use the old bottlescrews again. Imho, if there's any area of standing likely to fail catastrophically it's the fittings rather than the wire.

<hr width=100% size=1>my opinion is complete rubbish, probably.

I would disagree on that statement. Simply on the basis of cross sectional area. Bottle screws at the thinnest (thread) part will be twice the diameter of the wire. Likewise the chain plates etc will be much larger cross section than wire.
In the case of an eye in the rigging wire I have always know it as a thimble. Closed horse shoe shape in U channel for the wire to sit in at a much larger turn radius than if it were just a loop onto a pin.
I think SS rigging is great for maintenance free but limited life. Failure in my experience has been at the bottom swage where wire enters and water an collect. ol'will

 

[ducked]

No, if you are going to use galvanised wire, hand splice it and use galvanised bottle-screws.

As I understood it, the concern above was incompatability with SS chainplates. Deadeyes should address that concern. Galvanised bottle screws should not.

 

[ducked]

Do people still use galvanised? Every gaffer I see these days has gone for Dyneema. It looks right, needs no maintenance, is a DIY install, just needs careful inspection.

What do you look for, apart from chafe?

I would suspect that UV degradation might be as, or even more, invisible, than the embrittlement and crevice corrosion that SS is said to suffer from, but maybe thats just my inner Luddite.

I'd also suspect that many insurance companies will apply their 10 year "rule" irrespective of materials or inspection schedule, especially amateur inspection. but maybe thats just, well, insurance companies.

 

[Daydream believer]

In the early 70s, when I had my first Stella, I asked Tucker Brown (the builders) about SS rigging. They persuaded me not to bother & said that if I did change they would have to beef up the diameters. I asked why & it seems that several Stellas had lost their masts when changing to SS. TB had determined that the SS at the time had a lower breaking strain than galv. Of course it could have been unobserved stress fractures over 10 years. I do not know.
I have never looked at SWL tables to test this theory & my second Stella 30 years later also had galv rigging
But the point was made all the same.

 

[veshengro]

I used galvanised wire when I rigged my steel Gaff Cutter. Hand spliced, wormed, and parcelled, then served the splices with some tarred Marline that I bought from a Trawler Supply Company in Grimsby. A Classic yacht supply Chandlers in Norfolk sold the same Marline but at 4 times the price, so have a look round before buying.
Once I had set up the rigging I coated it with a mixture of boiled Linseed Oil, varnish and black Gloss paint. A similar process at sea in Merchant Ships was known as 'Blacking down' usually reserved for Junior Ordinary seaman..a bit messy..

I favoured Blacking Down after the rig was in place because when the coating, at least with my recipe, was dry it hardened, so movement IE bending etc: would crack the coating and allow the weather to penetrate to the wire.
Laying in a berth in the Canaries before crossing to the West Indies I went aloft and did a thorough check of my rig and was happy that after 8 years plus of continual seagoing, home waters and the Med, the rig and coating was still in excellent condition.


The Port side Top mast shroud in this photo may look white but that's sunlight on the shiney coating.

 

[oldharry]

I assume the anticipated issue is galvanic corrosion due to incompatible metals? I note that Sta-loc say their replacable fittings aren't suitable for galvanised wire, presumably for this reason.


How is that addressed?

Galvanic corrosion is a major issue, but between stainless and both aluminium and anything galvanised. Try putting a stainlkes shackle on a galvanised mooring chain . Within weeks all the zinc will have gone, and the steel rusting happily! Stainless is the odd one out being a long way up the galavanic table from both alloy and zinc. Stainless and galvanised simply dont mix well, and its always the galvanising that suffers.

 

[ducked]

I used galvanised wire when I rigged my steel Gaff Cutter. Hand spliced, wormed, and parcelled, then served the splices with some tarred Marline that I bought from a Trawler Supply Company in Grimsby. A Classic yacht supply Chandlers in Norfolk sold the same Marline but at 4 times the price, so have a look round before buying.
Once I had set up the rigging I coated it with a mixture of boiled Linseed Oil, varnish and black Gloss paint. A similar process at sea in Merchant Ships was known as 'Blacking down' usually reserved for Junior Ordinary seaman..a bit messy..

I favoured Blacking Down after the rig was in place because when the coating, at least with my recipe, was dry it hardened, so movement IE bending etc: would crack the coating and allow the weather to penetrate to the wire.
Laying in a berth in the Canaries before crossing to the West Indies I went aloft and did a thorough check of my rig and was happy that after 8 years plus of continual seagoing, home waters and the Med, the rig and coating was still in excellent condition.


The Port side Top mast shroud in this photo may look white but that's sunlight on the shiney coating.

Might the brittle coating not be a reason to either drop the black paint (and/or varnish)

OR

Alternatively, paint them on as top coats, over the linseed, perhaps letting it go off a bit first

OR

Alternatively, use straight instead of boiled linseed. It'll still go off, but more slowly.

Or

Alternatively, use a more stable vegetable oil, like Sunflower (It'll still go off, but more slowly still} or Canola (probably goes off too slowly)


Have no experience of this in a marine context but have used vegetable oils as rust preventatives on my car, in Taiwan. Seemed to work.

 

[veshengro]

I wouldn't class the coating as Brittle really, there was some flexibility in the wire, it's just that I felt that any sharp bending of the wire while actually hoisting the ends aloft or dipping it around the temporary rope stays holding the mast up, might damage the coating.
The black paint was just a small percentage of the mix to give the wire a black look as the Linseed and varnish left it a horrible colour I thought.
I was working alone and the newly finished hull was afloat at the time. Working aloft in a Bosun's chair hauling the spliced ends up to the Mast Band meant the rigging did get a bit of a rough time but the home made coating mix held up well, as proved in later years.

You could experiment with different coatings until you find something to suit your particular needs. I know there are probably commercial products which would do the trick, but I was confident the home brew would work at the time.