Rigging replacement - guide price ?

Boo2

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Hi,

I have had a boat (33 foot cruiser) surveyed and have received the suggestion that the standing rigging be replaced. I have sent off for quotes but in the interim I'd be very grateful for a finger in the air estimate (or recent experiences) for replacement rigging for this size of boat. (Note that I will want it done professionally so am not looking for the cost of parts only.)

Thanks,

Boo2
 
depends on the rig, and weather the bottle screws are still good.

a simple masthead rig, single standing backstay etc should be comfortably under one thosand, but if the bottle screws need doing as well, add about £50 each.

well worth getting a rigger to come and look at the boat, they will be able to asses whats needed much better than your surveyor and in my experiance, will not try to rip you off for things you dont need....
 
Comfortably under a grand including new bottle screws, and properly set up once rigged.

If you are east coast let me know and I will give you the number of the guy I used over here.
 
If you did it yourself, with lengths made up by the rigging shop, it tends to work out at c£50/60 per bit. So a typical small boat would be 8 * 60 = £480. So £1000 fitted and sorted sounds ok.
If you have the open type of bronze rigging screw you may want to re-use them. The, cheaper, closed ss type are normally replaced. So you need to budget for that as well.
......pretty much agree with the others really
 
Don't forget extra costs - yard craneage etc.
For a 29ft boat i had a quote of about £1100 inc new bottlescrews etc (RigMagic, Suffolk Yacht Harbour, would recommend) but it ended up at about £1500 with yard charges and a few extra bits.
Also check if the price includes any rig tuning or just throw it on and leave it to you. As I didn't know what I was doing I paid an extra hour to have it all initially set up with the mast centred laterally, sensible bend and rake, and realistic tensions everywhere. Of course you still have to tweak it.
This was before a new furler which could have made it £2500 - I was very lucky and found someone with an unused spare one they had had for a while and my final total was about £2000.
 
It might not actually need replacing. Can you inspect it yourself or do you know anyone who can. How much has the boat been used and how (raced?). How old is it? Surveyor will often recommend replacing when it's actually quite serviceable. E.g. if they know it's ten or so years old they will pretty much automatically say renew whatever condition it's in...
 
I had a 37ft. yacht completely re-rigged in Plymouth, on insurance insistence, with a couple of halyards and a new track on the boom with fittings. Including craneage and VAT it came to £4200. I would suggest that pro rata a 33ft. yacht would probably be around £3000 including VAT. If you can find a non VAT registered rigger it will be a lot cheaper.
 
Surveyor will often recommend replacing when it's actually quite serviceable. E.g. if they know it's ten or so years old they will pretty much automatically say renew whatever condition it's in...

Yes, I was aware that rigging is recommended to be replaced regardless of apparent condition, but I understand that is because it suffers from stress fracturing and you cannot tell from inspection whether that will happen. I guess insurance companies are in a good position to say what the expected lifespan of rigging will be, and it's only money to them after all...

Thanks to all for the estimates, I will try the vendor to see if they are amenable to a reduction and see what transpires,

Boo2
 
The cost of replacing standing rigging

I had all of the standing rigging on my Rival 32 replaced in October. This involved me removing all of the bits, taking it to the rigger and having him replace with like for like. He also replaced 3 of the rigging screws. I will refit the rigging when I'm next back in Bute This cost about £1300, not fitted. Looking at other posters, I probably paid over the odds -one of the down-sides of not having lots of yacht suppliers (cf, the South) is the lack of competition.

FWIW -all of the running rigging came to £270 the year before.
 
Replacing rigging

I would not put much faith in the resistance (electronic) testing of rigging. Yes it does need to be replaced after 15 years or so.
In my experience (smaller boat) the rigging wire is not so expensive. What costs is the roll swaged fittings if used. A simple eye with a ss thimble is cheap (er).
It can be practical if the rigger is not too far away, to replace stays one at a time. Without dropping the mast. Use a halyard to provide mast support while the stay is away being replaced. Send the old stay for them to measure (much safer) and replicate. If you want it slightly shorter or longer you can tell them.

IMHO it is the side stays(including intermdiate side stays) that really matter. Forestay is usually assisted by the halyard and jib while backstay is assisted by the mainsail and main sheet. Inner forestay is not so critical or highly loaded. Turnscrews made of bronze are not so susceptible to sudden failure and hopefully ss ones are made stronger than the wire. So not so vital to replace turnscrews.
good luck olewill
 
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