Replacing Standing Rigging whilst mast is up?

[PaulR]

Anyone got any experience of this?

have missed slot at my club for mast crane and planning to replace standing rigging this winter- in theory it must be possible to support mast with halyard/other stays whilst replacing each stay one by one - anyone done it ? any tips?

cost of crane coming to club to take down one mast is offputting and cost of hiring cherry picker for access almost as bad.

Not sure what pro riggers take on it might be?

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[AndrewB]

We do this, every stay has been removed and replaced at some stage. Did the forestay complete with roller reefing at Christmas. With a well-stayed cruising mast there is really no problem about rigging a halliard temporarily to take the load of the missing stay. Remember to slack off the opposing stay. Tie another halliard to the top of the stay to hold it while you are undoing it, and undo the bottom first. The hardest task on our yacht is to get the shrouds wired onto the spreader tips, it needs a head for heights.

One doesn't expect the thumbs-up from pro riggers for doing their job, but neither I nor my mast have fallen down yet.

 

[heerenleed]

When we replaced the standing rigging of our former boat, we had the rigging made by a professional rigger in winter when we were on the hard with the mast down. After the job had been done, he kindly asked us to please leave the mast standing if we would ever do it again. It seems they do this all the time..

<hr width=100% size=1>Peter a/b SV Heerenleed, Steenbergen, Netherlands

 

[MIKE_MCKIE]

I did the lower forestay & backstays earlier this winter. Unfortunately I had to take them off to use as patterns & when I took the new ones back it was in the middle of a gale & the mast, being stayed only at the top was bending into nice "S" shapes as the wind blew & the boat rolled! (This was in Brighton Marina!!) Looking at the mast made me wonder how long it was going to last, so I bit the bullet, rigged the mast ladder & put the lower stays back on. The boat was rolling up to about 30 deg, which made it an very interesting exercise, and proved the power of bicycle clips!! It also provided many spectators which much amusement (not to mention education in seamanlike language!!) as I swung to & fro with clevis pins & split pins in my mouth, trying to hang on with one hand, feed the stay into the fitting with one hand & insert the clevis pin & split pins with the other 2 hands. I might also add that even after a lifetime at sea, I am still moderately terrified of anyhing above 2 feet off the deck, hence the cycle clips!!
However apart from the inclement weather I would suggest that this is (normally) a perfectly practical way of renewing standing rigging. The fact that I did not rig temporary lines was my own fault & when I do the masthead stays, will be no problem using the genoa halyard, the spinnaker halyard & the topping lift as temp stays while the rest are down. I use the main halyard to hoist the mast ladder.
All I need now is some stronger cycle clips!!
Best of luck with it, remember the 6P's & you can't go wrong!
Mike
(Perfect Planning Prevents Piss Poor Performance)

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[extravert]

Just to add to the concensus, I have done this too without problem. Be careful though. I do jobs like these with someone else who understands what is going on, who can verify any possible dangerous actions before I do them.

<hr width=100% size=1>One day, I hope to own a real boat.

 

[Robin]

I have done this in the past like others here. However our local riggers (2 different ones) declined to do even the mizzen on our old W33 that way, Health & Safety reasons. They also commented that by the time they had firstly had to climb to remove each piece one by one, take it away as a pattern, then climb again to replace it, the labour cost would be huge compared to what it would be with the mast down. We went the cherry picker route, sharing the cost with others at the club. In the event seized spreader end fittings meant we could not have done the job aloft anyway.

The other factor too is that it is much easier to service all the other essential bits, mast tangs, sheaves/sheave pins, lights, aerials etc with the mast down and these must all be included in a re-rig, it is not always a stay that breaks to bring down a mast.

Best of luck


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[PaulR]

many thanks for all your feedback so far- no doubt that my ideal will be to lower the mast and sort it all out whilst firmly on the ground but not sure if that is going to happen this winter-at least I know that it is perfectly possible to replace them in situ- my rig has hook in terminals so suspect should be easier (famous last words) than dangling and using pins etc- wouldn't fancy that - mind you will have to check how fore and backstays are connected as suspect they are not hook in terminals, now waiting riggers price (s)

thanks all

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