Standing Rigging Change

[jfkal]

Is there a way to change stays, shrouds and spreaders without bringing the mast down? I know it sounds a bit reckless but thought it should be possible having halyards taking over the job temporarily.....

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[Rowana]

Wouldn't have thought this is a good idea. How do you propose to get to the top of the mast to undo the old rigging with all your halyards holding the mast up. And if it all goes pear-shaped who is going to scrape you, or whatever silly bu***r you've sent up the mast, off the deck??

Personally, I would have the mast down and use the opportunity to overhaul/replace all the lights/aerials and other stuff that adorns the top. Then when I put it back up, everything is in good order, and I don't have to go aloft in a bosun's chair for a while.

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[Plum]

Depends on the boat. I did mine without taking the mast down, but then I have a keel stepped very rigid mast that would probably allow me to go to the top of the mast with no stays at all. However, I did it one stay at a time. Don't forget to rig an extra safety line to yourself when going aloft.

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[arran]

I presume you are thinking that taking the mast down is a major excerecise...when in boating terms it should be fairly straight forward (nearly a contradiction in terms) providing you have sufficient help. As mentioned above it also gives you a chance to check everything is in order.

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[Chris_Robb]

If she is a mast head rig, then the lowers can be changed easily, however - even though it is feasible to change the uppers, don't even try with the mast up, because it is most unlikely that the wires will come out of the spreader ends without a struggle, which is no fun up a mast. So get it down, and check all the things like mast sheaves etc, and take the oppeortunity to clean the mast with thise nylon scrubbers and a chrome cleaner type past.

Back stays can be done easily with mast up.

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[jfkal]

Contradicting indeed. Especially here in Singapore. Where I stare in the face of a 2000 $ invoice for one round trip down-and-up. Haulout not inclusive of course.

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[snowleopard]

flying rigger

my sister had to have her forestay changed so called in a rigger. she was a bit dubious about the arrangement of halliards to keep the mast up but her reassured her it would be fine. he goes up the stick, disconnects the forestay and down comes the stick, depositing him in the cockpit of the boat behind.

similarly, i was having my boat craned out. this required detatching the backstay to make room for the crane. the mast had a heel pivot to allow it to be lowered backwards and the lad in the yard reckoned that would prevent the mast pivoting forwards. fortunately the yard manager appeared at this point and attached the main halliard to a strong point.

moral: don't trust the professionals.

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[vyv_cox]

Professionals do this every day, so it is certainly possible. All my rigging was renewed and refitted without lowering the mast and without the assistance of a crane. Unfortunately I wasn't there to see it. Fore-and back stays need halyard substitutes and ideally you should do the job from a basket on a crane to avoid climbing the mast. I guess it depends upon your own fear threshold whether you are prepared to climb the mast under temporary rigging. Lowers are no problem at all, you can change them without any temporary substitutes, but the mast tends to throb a bit. Changing uppers will benefit from running halyards well outboard to keep the mast up, otherwise some sort of substitute spreader is needed. With some ingenuity the spinnaker pole can be used for this.

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[HaraldS]

Don't think this is too hard if you tackle a thing at the time. Been thinking about that too, as Selden recalled all my 14mm rigging and is sending me new one. I my case it is only the lowers and the cap shrounds, and I figured it's probably a sunny afternoon of work. Should know in a few weeks if there are any problems lurking, or if you don't hear of me any more .... ;-)

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[Ross7300]

If you substitute the kite or genoa halyard for the upper removed then this is not a problem, only problem's you may have are that there may be tang plates covering the shroud exit points, andf if it's a french boat you mauy even find that the shrouds terminate inside the mast itself which means there is not way in hell it's possible.
I'm assuming as you don't want to take the mast down that you are fairly new to the whole rigging thing in which case I would not recommend this project as your first aloft, as it can be a quite daunting xperience especialy if rolling in a marina.

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