Standing rigging renewal.

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mick

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My Sadler 26 does around 1000 miles a season, not all of that sailing. I don't race, or sail in winds above F. 5/6 (normally). I usually reef fairly early. As you can see, I am not one who sees sailing as a challenge. My standing rigging was new in 1998. When should I be thinking of replacing it?
 
Most insurance companies insist on replacing every ten years. I inspect once or twice a year with the mast up, take the rig down every 4-5 years for a propper check and replace at 10 years. However I race a lot and have seen my fair share of rig failures (including last weekend - fortunatly not mine) so I don't take any chances.
 
no agreement had been in place but it was just one of those safe bets on 10 years, it was brought up on one of the meetings by a surveyor i know and he was told that 15 years would be appropriate, but dependant on the boat, if you have a racing boat then a shorter time period, but on a cruising boat with updated and oversized rigging then 15 years would be more appropriate.
 
Yes 15 years might be Ok However if in doubt I reckon the cap and intermediate shrouds are the first concern. It seems to be more of a question of age rather than the abuse it gets. Even if the mast is off the boat the calender keeps ticking on shroud age failure. Mind you the ones I have seen fail (4) have been closer to 30 years old. But when they go your mast is wrecked too.

Georgio was it a shroud failure of the wire at the bottom at the entry to the swage? olewill
 
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How difficult is it to do the replacement yourself (sub 30ft boat say)?

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The answer partly depends on the weight of your mast and if you have steps. If you have steps/bosun chair you might choose to rig a halyard in place and then remove one stay at a time to have it made in a shop. Then go back to the mast and put the new one(s) in. One trip for the back stay(s), one for the forestay, one trip for the cap shrouds. The innner stays involve less climbing aloft.

If you have enough manpower and blocks you could pull your mast down and then do the whole lot on the ground.

Mine's a solid oregon mast, 26 foot and was lowered fine apart from the last 20 degrees, and then I put a crack in the cabin top (from the gooseneck) by doing it solo without much tackle. Apart from that it was a worthwhile job to take the stays to the shop to get made up.
The more you do on the boat yourself, the more you really know your boat and understand it's systems.
 
As you know the number of crashed masts in a season is very low. We are talking a very small number. So the risk to any of us is in the same order as grounding dangerously, steering failure etc. -you fill out the list.

On the technical side, no one can rule out a sudden and unpredictable failure of the rigging, whether in the first season or the tenth!. For most of us, the structural weakness lies in the forestay; if that caves, the rig goes. All the other shrouds are more or less duplicated.

There is therefore a case at 10 years for replacing the forestay for such boats: the rest of the rigging can be observed closely - as should all the critical systems on any boat!!

If a shroud is on its way out, either a crack will appear in the one of the fittings at either end, or the wire will start to strand - ie single strands will detatch where it enters a fitting.
I understand these are the weak points - less so the middle of a shroud.

If you have an insurance company that is likely to use the 10 year rule to wealk away from any rigging claim, either change the insurer, cover yourself with an acceptable survey, or bow to the inevitable and re-rig.

PWG
 
High Peter sorry I have to disagree on most of your points. I want to at least put another point of view.
A few years back in our club fleet of about 35 boats we had 2 failures per year. The wire was in each case original to near 30yo boats. Yes the odds are low but the damage to the mast was catastrophic.

A rig under pressure does not have duplication of side stays. In fact if you only had a top side stay then failure of this would drop the mast in the water undamaged. But failure of the top stay when the intermediate side stay stays intact means the mast snaps at the point where the intermediate holds it. Likewise if the inner or intermediate stay lets go the middle of the mast is unsupported and the mast will crumple or fold.

All the stay failures (Stainless Steel 1X19) I have seen have been sudden failure of all strands. yes I know that the wire sometimes fails in single strands and if this happens you are lucky to get a warning. But don't count on it.

I reckon the forestay is perhaps the least likely to give a problem simply because under sailing stress we have a jib and halyard taking the load or at least sharing it. If it is a fractional rig with just one forestay then a failure if there were no jib might see the rig layed in the water (usually to leeward) but not with a broken mast.

Like wise a backstay has the load of the mainsail and sheet partially backing it up.

So while I am happy to debate in the hope of getting more accurate conclusion I still reckon side stays are the priority to replace. (I hope this is right as I think my forestay is near 15yo) And a new season starts next weekend. good luck olewill
 
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