Standing rigging - stainless or galvanised ?

sarabande

sarabande

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Having read that stainless can suffer from almost invisible damage, and is less strong than galvanised of the same configuration, can I trawl, please, for your experience and views on replacing (at the insurance company's request ) my standing rigging with galvanised OR stainless.

The boat is not one which would suffer aesthetically from galvanised wire , so I am easy on which to buy. I'm looking for ease of adjustment, maintenance, checking, etc, as the mast has to be replaced at the same time.

Thanks
 
Well I am (just)old enough that everything I sailed as a kid had galvanised rigging. Every year it theoretically required maintenance-the application of boiled linseed oil and a visual inspection of the swages and eyes..Inevitably there would eventually be rust and/or oil stains on the headsails from brushing past the shrouds whilst tacking..

IMO I prefer to rerig using Stalok/Norsemen terminals and s/steel rigging. If you are prepared to make up your own rigging in this way the cost is ok spread throughout the servicelife..
 
I'll be interested in this one. I have galv rigging and its been there for 14 years at least. Took her out in a blow in late summer, gusting to 35 kts, and everything stayed in place.
However, replacement will be required sooner rather than later. If I get a reel of s/s wire what will I need to cut the various lengths? (Staloc approach) Is there a special cutter or would I have to measure everything up and get the supplier to cut it? It would far better for me to cut it on site.

Any ideas?
 
Both types of wire have their pros and cons.

st/st although stronger than galvanised work hardens easier. This means it becomes brittle and will eventually fail. The failure mode is (usually) catastrophic as one strand going will instantly overload the rest and the whole lot goes. Early indications of failure require specialist equipment unlikely to be found in your average bosun's locker. Hence most insurance companies insist on us replacing what looks like perfectly serviceable rigging every 5 - 8 years

Galvanised wire is less prone to work hardening and is more likely to fail, due to corrosion, one strand at a time. Usually you will see this as rust on the outside of the wire which stains hands and clothing. Broken strands also result in torn sails and blood-stained hands and clothing.
To delay the onset of corrosion it is usual to remove your standing rigging every winter and store it in a drum of homemade goop. Some swear by (at?) a mixture of linseed oil, diesel and stockholm tar; which of course stains hands and clothing. During the three days in the summer when the sun actually shines this goop will melt and run down your shrouds, staining hands, sails and clothing.
 
1. Stainless is x times stronger than galvanised (IRO x10?) of the same diameter.

2. Any stainless components remaining after re-rigging will need replacing. Stainless eats zinc in weeks, leaving you with rust stains everywhere. so out go all the s/s bottlescrews, rigging plates and mast fittings too.

3. Galvanised needs regular annual maintenance - linseed oil etc to keep it going.

4. Rust weakens it very rapidly. It then sheds rust particles all over the deck, which stain it permanently!

This of course applies to larger boats that live on moorings all season. Dinghies and smaller day boats manage quite well with galvanised as they tend to be better protected from the weather when not in use.
 
Any one have experience of using a modern lubricant / wire preservative, such as teflon, on galvanised, to avoid the staining ? I can remember being made to use raw linseed oil on wire with a rope (hemp or sisal) heart, but does modern galvanised wire rope use terylene, or indeed any rope at all ?
 
I replaced the galvanised 6mm standing rigging a couple of years ago, having been given a load of wire rope by a fishing rig maker. Apparently the 6mm is too light for use on big pelagic trawls.... he had a few miles of the stuff in the yard.
Anyway, I managed to get use of a swaging press and made the eyes myself using the old wire as templates. Before the mast went up I laid the rigging in a length of old guttering and gave it a good slurp of heated waxoyl. Since then its been done a couple of times with a mix of stockholm tar, linseed and any old varnish to help it harden.
The galvanised bottlescrews are coated in lanolin.
Total cost of the project was for the swages and eye thimbles, certainly under £50.
The problem of goop staining sails is not a big deal... they are tan anyway and the lower half of the shrouds is protected with a loose sleeve and bulls-eyes.
The rope is now into its second winter afloat. At the next refit in the spring I will recoat it and amybe treat it to new (galv) turnbuckles.
 
[ QUOTE ]
but does modern galvanised wire rope use terylene, or indeed any rope at all ?

[/ QUOTE ]

The wire you describe with a rope heart would be used, with a rope tail, as a small diameter, low-windage halyard. This was before the days of low-stretch synthetics.
 
Galva dosent leave rust marks!! I used galva rigging for years untill i found norsman terminals and a roll of ss for almost nothing.Then my rigging looke like everyone elses!

You have to put the rope in an old oil drum and cook it in old oil for the night then when its dry soak it in boiled linseed oil which will provide a hard coating.The bottle screws i coated in linseed as well,later i sprayed them with hair spray (lacquer) from time to time and my galva shackels.

Later when i began buying S/S things i couldent beleive the price!!Its fantasticaly expensive!!!!!Even today i bulk at the price and buy galva items!!

Galvas STRONGER than S/S and it wount just break as its 24 strand i think 7x7 then 49 strands!!! and before it starts to fray it will be quite old 10 years or more!

You should boil the rigging in old oil ever year!!!I dident i just wiped it over with linseed.

Nothing wrong with galva!! Just that in the Solant or Portofino you may get some funny looks as if to say " were you looking for the fishing port"!!
 
There are some circumstances where galvanised cannot be used, i.e T ball fittings etc. but where shackle attachment is used there is generally no reason other than cosmetic appearance where galvanised cannot be used.
It is not subject to the ten year replacement rule as a matter of course as with stainless and, indeed galvanised rigging wire 7x7 standing can last 30 years plus if looked after. Galvanised running rigging is prone to earlier failure because of the galvanised coating wearing away over sheaves and the fine filaments rust very quickly then. A galvanised forestay will also lose the coating more quickly because of the sail hanks. It is also difficult mating a galvanised forestay with the fittings required for furling gear.

However. in my opinion there is a lot to be said for galvanised rigging in many ways, particularly in price, being a fraction the cost of stainless and the fact that it will last easily three times as long without requiring replacement beacuse of uncertainty. It is also easy to see serious deterioration of galvanised.

Use a commercial wire supplier as against marine who are considerably less expensive but just as & in many cases, more knowledgable. ( I have one or two names that may be of use)
Standing rigging has no rope core, it is all steel
 
I recall a British-made rigging wire ( British Ropes? Marlow? ) seen on a few boats, which was designed for rigging land-based radio masts in highly-corrosive environments. This had a flexible coating not only around the outside, but impregnated throughout the strands as well.

Their reps at the Earls Court Boat Show told me it was far superior in its longevity to 'uncoated' 1x19 SS and trad galvanised wire rope, but that yotties wouldn't buy it 'cos it 'didn't look right.

Anyone with any more info?

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The classic coating for galvanised wire is :

3 parts boiled linseed oil to 1 part of oil-based varnish.

Not just boiled oil on it's own- the varnish makes it go off and you do not get marks on clothing etc. It takes a few days to go off.
Brush it on or better still use a cotton glove / cloth and you will also find any broken strands (ouch!).
Any mix with Stockholm tar in it will never go off and will always mark anything that touches it.
The lower part of the rigging gets rusty before the upper and when on very long boring ocean passages you can spend your time dressing the bits within arms reach to great effect.
 
Regarding cutting SS wire. The best wire cuters seem to be the scissor type with one blade bypassing the other. Boltcutters type tend to crush the wire and while they may actually cut it will leave a nasty tatty end that is difficult to get into sleeves etc.
I once saw a rigger cutting the thinner SS wire with a sharp wood chisel and a hammer onto a steel plate. No it didn't stay sharp for long but seemed to cut quite well.
You could try hacksaw but the strands need to be well suported likewise an angle grinder.
But yes you can do it. Most of us however emove the stay and present it to the rigger for duplication.
I wouldn't think of galvanised wire but then maybe I am just conditioned to use it. SS does fail but I would simply count on replacing after 10 or 15 years. olewill
 
I have just had a look at the chain plates on board. They are stainless, and pretty well bolted through the structure of the boat.

With the warning that stainless "eats" galvanised, it looks as if the crunch point is whether I have to replace ALL the rigging and chain plates by galvanised fittings, or stick with stainless.


By the way, if you have an aluminium mast with galvanised rigging, where does corrosion take place ? At the attachment points to the rigging, or elsewhere ?

I don't want to stick with stainless just because of a few technical problems in converting to galvanised, but I DO want to end up with a rig and masts that are reliable and easy to service and inspect.
 
You can cut stainless wire with a hacksaw.

The trick is to drill a hole of the same diameter as the wire, through a block of wood. Then use the saw to cut a slot in the block perpendicular to the hole.

To cut the wire you push it through the hole in the block, and line up the slot with where you want to cut. Then saw away. The wooden block stops the ends of the wire from fraying as you cut.

Worked for me last year when I made a new forestay...
 
I used an angle grinder to cut my stainless.On your boat id go for stainless galva look right on tradional boats.Ive even got stainless on this boat!!!But then the boat came with it! If id had to buy it!!!!!
 
What makes you state that ss should be up to 10 times stronger than galvanised. I would expect that the galvanised would be stronger, since the starting strength, that is the strength before drawing the wire, will be higher. Assuming the same reduction, normally at least 75 percent, the finals trength will also be higher.
 
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