Sta-Lok turnbuckle alternatives?

Tim Good

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I was costing up replacing my existing Sta-Lok bronze turnbuckles on their website and it came out as over £1200 for 9!!!!

Does anyone know of alternatives that are more reasonable and equally well regarded?
 
I would check with them.

Replacing stainless rigging wire and end fittings is often mandated but I've always been told that they're not worried about stainless thread / bronze bodied turnbuckles.

I've only ever seen problems with Scandinavian Stainless / Stainless turnbuckles.
 
I recently bought 8-9 rigging screws from Jimmy Green Marine, and found them both helpful and competitive. It helped that I went down to them, bantered with them a bit, and bought several other odds and ends while I was there.

You could, too.
 
What size terminals are we talking here?
Maybe check with a rigging shop, they may have access to better prices.

Yeah you're probably right. Here is the list of the Sta-Lok types i need:

6 x B24-588 £101.67 (5/8 thread)
2 x B24-12 £230.88 (3/4 thread)
1 x B24-07 £59.46 (1/2 thread)
 
I bought all new rigging for my 42' cutter that included all new bronze, Sta-Lok turnbuckles (I thought they were called rigging screws over there) plus the wire and toggles and the Sta-Lok fittings for just US$3000 so the $1200 for just the turnbuckles sounds quite excessive. I think the $1200 price you found is just what you described, a "list" price and doesn't reflect reality.

If you can't find a better price let me know and I'll give you the contact details for my supplier in the US.
 
The Sta-Lok ones are nice. Forged bronze body with polished chrome finish. No galling issues, as there's no stainless threads touching, but costly. Not as costly as on their website though, if you buy them just about anywhere else.

Comparable Blue Wave and Petersen/Hi-Mod ones cost even more than Sta-Lok.

But you can go for cheaper all-stainless ones, e.g. from Osculati:
Body 07.183.08 €18
Left thread: Toggle 07.184.08 €26.20
Right thread: swaged fitting 8mm 07.185.08 €10.30
Total: €54.5 inc. VAT (Sta-Lok B24-588 is £101.26 ex VAT)

These can gall, so you need to oil them when adjusting and I personally wouldn't use them for the shrouds on a modern rig that needs to be tensioned hard. For the rest of the rig you can probably get away with them just fine and it should save you considerably dough.
 
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