Rigger recommendation Clyde

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Pavalijo

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It is around 7 years since the previous owner replaced the standing rigging on Calypso and I want to have it inspected (at Kip Marina).
Can anyone recommend a rigger/rigging company from personal experience?
Many thanks,
Paul
 
MRS is the obvious one, long established with an excellent reputation and a workshop on site. They have always performed well for me, good quality and quick, (and they do mail order)
Can not comment on their prices as I have never had a comparison.
 
I had mine done by the incumbent riggers at Kip. They did the job at a reasonable price (less than I expected; under £1000), and as far as I can see, the workmanship is OK. However, they did NOT set the rigging up correctly; I think they just replaced like for like (which happened to be wrong - the forestay was too short). I got John Highcock of Saturn Sails to set the rigging up for me - he spent a couple of hours checking everything, fixed the short forestay and did a test sail with me, all for less than £100. In doing so he markedly improved her sailing performance!
 
Quandary said:
MRS is the obvious one, long established with an excellent reputation and a workshop on site.
Click to expand...

I gave them the rigging from my Hunter and asked them to copy it. What I got back was about as wrong as it could be: forestay 2' too long, backstay too short, inner and outer shrouds the wrong lengths and wildly different from side to side. I went to a friendly local chandler and managed to cut down the forestay to make a backstay and the cap shrouds to make a pair of lowers. All the others needed replaced.

To be fair, the dinghy rigging they made for me at the same time was spot-on.
 
JumbleDuck said:
I gave them the rigging from my Hunter and asked them to copy it. What I got back was about as wrong as it could be: forestay 2' too long, backstay too short, inner and outer shrouds the wrong lengths and wildly different from side to side. I went to a friendly local chandler and managed to cut down the forestay to make a backstay and the cap shrouds to make a pair of lowers. All the others needed replaced.

To be fair, the dinghy rigging they made for me at the same time was spot-on.
Click to expand...

So they got every bit of it wrong and you did not take it back to them? If you had the eedjit who obviously made it up while drunk could have been fired and the company saved further damaging publicity.
Us customers surely have some responsibility to report shoddy work and give an opportunity to improve?
 
Clearly MRS have satisfied customers but also appear to have made errors that I may struggle to identify. I will try and keep this thread alive for another day or two to see if I get reports on Fairlie Riggers and any others.

Many thanks for contributions to date - most interesting!
 
Quandary said:
So they got every bit of it wrong and you did not take it back to them? If you had the eedjit who obviously made it up while drunk could have been fired and the company saved further damaging publicity.
Us customers surely have some responsibility to report shoddy work and give an opportunity to improve?
Click to expand...

I did tell them. They told me that they had made it to exactly the dimensions of the stuff I had given them (how it held the mast up is anyone's guess) and which they had unfortunately thrown away. On the bright side, they didn't charge me. Moral: when getting copies made, keep and check against the originals.
 
Bump! Going to Kip tomorrow evening and hoping to speak to rigging co's on Friday.

MRS have mixed reviews - anyone with experience of them or Fairlie Riggers (these being the two companies that I had in mind before this thread) or indeed any others?

Many thanks
Paul
 
In 2005 MRS did the whole rigging on my ketch, about 12 different parts...all a perfect fit....no problems and all this without taking the masts down!!!
 
MRS replaced my Centaur mast last year after it had been dropped whilst stepping it.

They didn't replace everything right first time, but they did do everything I wanted when I pointed out what was wrong.

The mast/standing rigging was OK. The electrics needed attention and rain was getting into the saloon through either the new or the old bolt holes for the mast step. They just made it right without quibble which while it's not as good as getting it right first time comes a close second in my book.
 
I used Scotia Rigging in Linnwood for my Westerly Ketch (sadly sold a long time ago) very much cheaper that others and seemed to be a good job, they also returned my old rigging and marked up the new rigging as fwd shroud, aft shroud etc. No real problems but it was some time ago.

Scotia Rigging Services
68 Bridge Street Linwood
Paisley
Renfrewshire
PA3 3DR
Tel: 01505 321127
Fax: 01505 321333
Email: eng@scotia-handling-rigging.co.uk
 
Fairlie Riggers have done a couple of my jobs and set up my mast this year and I have been satisfied with them. I feel sometimes it is good to work with the one man bands as there is less chance with the quality being variable.
 
Alistair at MRS replaced a section of guardrail earlier this year. Unfortunately it didn’t fit. After a brief discussion about this he replaced it, this time it fitted perfectly.
Alistair as I believe has been doing this type of job for decades, he seems fairly good. As a customer you should not have to check to see if the work has been done properly or not. He is one of only a few riggers around there and so is not crying into his handkerchief to often if he loses a customer or two. This fairly represents most of the services around Kip. Like they say if you screw up a job whilst providing a service and then offer it for free, you’ve still charged too much.
 
I think I'll go and have a chat with Fairlie Riggers.
Hopefully the survey will not reveal any issues, but if there is work to be done it looks as though I can't take it for granted that i don't need to check the work carefully!

Thanks for all the responses
Paul
 
Some marinas used to operate a constraint on outside contractors operating on site, I am not sure if Kip is still one of those but I recall being annoyed when a mechanic said he would not (could not) work on my boat in its berth in a different marina. Marina claimed it was an insurance/health &safety issue. However it is likely that Kip and Fairlie have reciprocal arrangements so you may not have to take the boat off site. I know MRS do a lot of work at Largs and most riggers are a bit like sailmakers in operating anywhere their customer is.
Worth checking though?
 
Last edited:
Quandary said:
Some marinas used to operate a constraint on outside contractors operating on site, I am not sure if Kip is still one of those but I recall being annoyed when a mechanic said he would not (could not) work on my boat in its berth in a different marina. Marina claimed it was an insurance/health &safety issue. However it is likely that Kip and Fairlie have reciprocal arrangements so you may not have to take the boat off site.
Worth checking though?
Click to expand...

Certainly Kip wouldn't let unapproved contractors on-site up till a couple of years ago; I wouldn't expect that to have changed. I understand that the reason for such restrictions (which are common to many marinas) is because the marina is responsible for the H&S of everyone working within the marina, and the approval is to do with demonstration of appropriate insurance. I think marinas often charge a relatively small fee for the approval process; not much, but enough to be unattractive for a one-off job. I may have got the detail wrong, but what it adds up to is that unless a contractor can be sure of significant repeat business at a particular marina, it may not be worth their while getting approved by a marina.
 
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