Standing rigging age

[Rum_Pirate]

How can you tell when the standing rigging needs replacing?

Or should it be done as a matter of preventative maintenance every (how many?) years?

 

[bob26]

How can you tell when the standing rigging needs replacing?

Or should it be done as a matter of preventative maintenance every (how many?) years?

In his book "Inspecting the Aging Sailboat" (which I just happen to be reading at the moment) the American yachting writer Don Casey says:

"Stainless steel rigging should give at least 5 years of service and may well last 15 years or longer..."

He suggests that uniform discoloration is normal in stainless rigging but heavy rusting or discoloration in some areas and not others or rigging that is pitted should be replaced. Also a single broken strand should condemn the whole wire. And swages that are bent , showing signs of rust or cracking are also signs the rigging should be replaced. Mechanical terminals (Norseman and Sta-Lok) can be reused provided a new cone is fitted, he claims.

 

[Rum_Pirate]

Thanks.

I suspect I should buy a copy.

 

[VicS]

Trouble is it tends to fail where you cannot see it.. deep in a swage for example.

Apart from a new forestay due to a broken strand mine is 33 years old. It'll see me out!

 

[bob26]

Apart from a new forestay due to a broken strand mine is 33 years old. It'll see me out!

Yes I suspect most rigging gets replaced because safety first surveyors suggest it so insurers require it rather than because its strictly necessary. To some extent it depends on your usage and the stresses you are likely to put it under I guess. If you only ever expect to slosh about the estuary on sunny summer weekends in light winds you might well take a different view to someone setting off to cross the Atlantic.

 

[Boathook]

How can you tell when the standing rigging needs replacing?

Or should it be done as a matter of preventative maintenance every (how many?) years?

For cruising 10 to 15 years seems to be a figure I have been quoted. As others have said s/s rigging fails where it can't be seen hence the 'early' renewal when compared with galvanised steel rigging.

 

[idpnd]

Facing similar questions renovating a 20 year old boat, the riggings probably original. I dont think its every been sailed much, its more years on the hard and material fatigue im worried about.. It looks great but losing the mast(s) would be rather epensive.. Any rigging site I go to (provided by riggers that is) says 15 years blabla, but I know a lot of people with 30 year old rigging, seems almost a religous issue at times

 

[William_H]

Rigging replacement

I am known around our club as tight fisted and encouraging other people to do likewise. However I have also seen masts lost through stainless steel stay wire failure. If I remember correctly 4 masts have been lost one in a 26ft heavy keel boat the rest in 22ft boats. In each case it was a side stay that let go completely without warning in each case the stay was over 20 years old. I think in most cases it was at the bottom of the stay as the wire entered the swage. Both copper swages and stainless steel swages are affected. The cost is a factor of about 10 to one of replacing the mast and stays versus replacing the stay wires. That is without considering safety and inconvenience of a failure at sea.

I was involved with maintenance of a fleet of 10 small dinghies used for sail training. The wire was about 1/8 inch diameter 1X19 rigging wire. Despite very little use, light loads and being stored indoors mast in a rack the wires started to fail at about 15 years old. In this case individual strands let go.

So I am convinced that stay wires should be replaced after 15 years (or less) that they will fail with out warning, that no electronic testing or inspection will be good enough and that the actual use frequency or amount of hard racing makes any difference. Yes I am familiar with the theories of fatigue but I think it more a function of corrosion of some sort. Sorry it is not like me to be so conservative but I have seen how horrible a mast/rigging failure is. Perhaps my experience of mast around ears on about 5 occasions has given me a phobia. But I still say old rigging wire is a failure waiting to happen. If you really want to save money then just replace the cap shrouds intermediate side stays. Not forestays and backstays.
Sorry Vic if I make you worry. olewill

 

[Woodlouse]

I think most insurance companies when insuring a rig will insist on the rigging being replaced over a certain period of time. I can't quote any precisely but something between 5 and 10 years for replacing standing SS rigging. This is one area where galvanised wire wins as stainless can fail without warning, whereas galvanised wire is quite open about what state it is in and well treated can last almost indefinitely.

 

[Pye_End]

I think most insurance companies when insuring a rig will insist on the rigging being replaced over a certain period of time.

When I asked GJW a couple of years ago they said that they do not put a time limit on rigging - it just has to be well maintained/inspected.

The last insurance survey said something about all rigging over 10 should be changed, but when GJW were challanged over this they said that as this was not their policy it could be ignored.

 

[idpnd]

I recently got a few prices for insurance for said 20 year old boat, and one insurance requires "a survey, particularly standing rigging" but no specific mention of age

 

[Cloona]

"Also a single broken strand should condemn the whole wire."

do have rigging only a few years old but a single tsrand on the forestay was broken this year - does that really mean a new forestay ?

 

[idpnd]

"Also a single broken strand should condemn the whole wire."

I read that everywhere, the strength is reduced by 1/no of strands by that..

 

[jeanne]

Stainless rigging.

A friend had a shroud fail, 8mm stainless 17 years old.
He decided to replace the whole rig, and as I had 8mm galvanised steel wire for my guardrails, which were going rusty, I asked for the junked wire to replace them.
In order to pass them through the stanchions, I had to cut one terminal swage off each wire, a few inches from the swage.
Every one shed a strand or two when it had been cut, which had broken in the cup of the swage, and because they had stayed in the lay of the wire, held by the cup, they had not been spotted.
Lesson learned.
You cannot inspect stainless rigging, you have to replace it before it can let you down.

 

[PISCES Falmouth]

Age of Rigging

As one of your often maligned Surveyors, we always try to give advice and recommendations based on facts, accepted standards or valid technical advice rather than pet theories or conjecture. For a more definitive answer to your question the advice given in MECAL Technical Note 25-2 for the survey of coded vessels cannot really be bettered. It states:

Standard production GRP sailing yachts with alum. masts and SS rigging, operating in category 2. (60 miles safe haven)
Generally insurers are nervous of rigs that are more than about 10-12 years old. So inspections should be linked to the age of the rig rather than the point in the code examination cycle thus:
Initial, Midterms & Renewals
Rig less than 5 years old - rigger's inspection report or examiner to check mast and standing rigging from deck level, using binoculars for upper sections.
Rig over 5/under 10 years old - rigger's inspection report required, or bosun chair inspection by surveyor, if suitably experienced.
Rig over 10/under 15 years old - rigger's inspection report required, or mast unstepped and furling gear dismantled for inspection by surveyor, if suitably experienced. Complete renewal of standing rigging advised at this point. Renewal of wires in pairs over several years is acceptable.

Rig over 15 years old - complete renewal of standing rigging required.

Classic wood masts with galvanised steel rigging

Rigger's inspection report or bosun chair inspection by surveyor at initial and renewals. Inspection from deck at mid-terms.
Mast to be unstepped and inspected by specialists at least every 10 years.

Hope this helps - it's not only the cost associated with mast/rig failure that you should consider but also the potential for injury to crew members and/or the results of disablement.

 

[bob26]

Valid advice

As one of your often maligned Surveyors, we always try to give advice and recommendations based on facts, accepted standards or valid technical advice rather than pet theories or conjecture. For a more definitive answer to your question the advice given in MECAL Technical Note 25-2 for the survey of coded vessels cannot really be bettered. It states:

Thank you for that interesting information PISCES about the technical advice offered by MECAL. As you say, facts are better than theories and conjecture. So what are the pertinent facts that make MECAL's view more valid than anyone else's ?

 

[sighmoon]

"Also a single broken strand should condemn the whole wire."

I read that everywhere, the strength is reduced by 1/no of strands by that..

If the strand is broken in the middle, yes.

However, if you have a frayed strand escaped from the terminal, then it is likely to indicate that the terminal is about to fail.

 

[Koeketiene]

Just had our standing rigging replaced.

Asked the rigger how old he thought the rigging was. He said he was sure it was original. 'Doesn't own anyone anything, but would have lasted a bit longer' were his words.
Original means 27 years old.

Not bad.

 

[oldharry]

"Also a single broken strand should condemn the whole wire."

do have rigging only a few years old but a single tsrand on the forestay was broken this year - does that really mean a new forestay ?

Remembering that stainless fails without warning, I would ask how you can be sure there are not other strands about to fail also? Cost of new forestay vs cost of entire new rig?

Roller reefing can impose twisting forces on the forestay in addition to the normal working loads, so that any evidence of failure there should be taken seriously. Check that the RR mechanism is working properly also and not binding on the forestay in some way. Plastimo used to be notorious for unravelling forestays when the top bearings seized. I think the newer models have this sorted, but one rigger said he 'made his living courtesy of Plastimo' some years back.

 

[Mandarin331]

rig check

When we bought our boat the insurers required a survery of the rigging. Having failed to find any rigger who would do this - they all just wanted to replace everything, we found Maidsure - who are now franchising the technique to other surveryors - its an electronic test developed from the process used by the National Grid.

We checked them out with our insurers - Navigators - who knew them well and supported the process. Their website is http://www.rigcheck.co.uk/. The survey cost £180 all in, and I had the results in 24 hours - fully accepted by the insurers and good for another 10 years.

The website makes interesting reading anyway - you can make your own mind up if you like it - certainly I would not try this on a lightweight, highly stressed racer.