DIY standing rigging in Oz

[double u]

“...prefer tagged chains for lifting,...“
Yeah great, chains for standing rigging! It's getting better & better.
BTW:
who wants to go the whole hog: in the 90ies Turks in Marmaris were drilling out the wires from broken off terminals & „reusing“ them...

[GILow]

Originally Posted by pwillems

Re: Synthetic rigging...



I am keen and have looked into it. There is a major concern I have however and that I can't seem to get a straight answer on:



What happens when a deck stepped mast with synthetic rigging gets hit by lightning? I'm guessing you end up with the mast in the water with a bit of melted plastic stuck to it at each terminal. With my current heavy stainless rigging and external chainplates which terminate just above water level, I think I have a pretty good chance of surviving a direct strike.

Ummm... the synthetic is surely non conductive? So any current would travel down the mast. I don’t think that’s enough current to do much more than maybe warp the mast.

[Emmalina]

Did my boat with wire and compression fittings from HiMod/Peterson Stainless in the UK Do they have a distributor in Aus ?

[GILow]

Originally Posted by Emmalina

Did my boat with wire and compression fittings from HiMod/Peterson Stainless in the UK Do they have a distributor in Aus ?

Possibly, but they can be bought online. They worked out similar in price to Stalok when I looked.

[charliehows]

Been rolling through my rigging, some wires already on 2nd replacement; my current favourite design is; 5-10 inches of gal. chain off chainplate, turnbuckle, gal. wire swaged and thimbled. I use ss wire on outer main shrouds and both headstays for chafe advantage (miniscule - really your sails shouldn't contact any rigging...) The chain allows a nice bit of leeway in the wire length; I have had one instance where a displaced 0 (005 -> 050) in the order gave me 50mm extra length to deal with - rather than the drama of going back to the maker, chucking away perfectly good wire etc, I just cut the chain down. Most of you would probably prefer ss wire - no prob., and I think ss swage and thimble would be better in terms of failure rate than from cavitation corrosion in normally used swage on terminals. You could also go for ss chain although it may be quite a bit weaker pound for pound...

[pwillems]

Originally Posted by GILow

Ummm... the synthetic is surely non conductive? So any current would travel down the mast. I don’t think that’s enough current to do much more than maybe warp the mast.

Yes, I would agree... however, for a deck stepped mast, there is no good path for the strike to follow. My uneducated assumption is the wet sythetic shrouds directly attached to external chain plates very close to the waterline are going to be as good a path as any, yet highly resistive. High resistance = high heat = vaporised rigging = very bad day.

[GILow]

Originally Posted by pwillems

Yes, I would agree... however, for a deck stepped mast, there is no good path for the strike to follow. My uneducated assumption is the wet sythetic shrouds directly attached to external chain plates very close to the waterline are going to be as good a path as any, yet highly resistive. High resistance = high heat = vaporised rigging = very bad day.

Credible theory.

Damn difficult to test.

Any volunteers?

[Chotu]

Originally Posted by pwillems

Yes, I would agree... however, for a deck stepped mast, there is no good path for the strike to follow. My uneducated assumption is the wet sythetic shrouds directly attached to external chain plates very close to the waterline are going to be as good a path as any, yet highly resistive. High resistance = high heat = vaporised rigging = very bad day.

Not to mention even if it doesn’t go down the synthetic rigging at all, when it strikes the top of the mast it gets very hot and could just melt the rigging in that scenario as well. Without even traveling through the rigging.

[neilu]

I had a 42 foot Jeanneau in Thailand and age dictated that the rigging should be changed out - over 10 years in service. Plus we were planning on some serious sailing in the area so I didnt want any problems!!.
With you being in Oz and I know Mandurah, you are spoilt for choice. I thailand there is really only a couple of suppliers, one being in Phuket, and all were very expensive. Captive market.

I found thru the internet a company in the USA Rigging Only. Good website. Very very helpful.
So after a few email discussions they sent me a whole kit of about US$2500. This comprised of basically everything from top to bottom inc turnbuckles, pins etc. To get around the exact measurement issue, they supplied the wires with the top swaged and the bottom about 1 M longer, and then supplied Hayn ( I forget correct name now) reusable mech swages. Cables even came with test cert.
Shipped it all coiled up for small cost. Imported into Thailand as a TV mast guy kit to save on marked up duties. Also got them to supply new coated safety rail wires.

So myself wife and her niece changed all the rigging one by one over a weekend. i had to come down each time to layout old against new and cut cable and fit mech swages. Easy. then back up and install the new one and pull out the next one and repeat.
As I said very helpful people and good website. Rigging Only.


Neil

[skenn_ie]

Learn to splice wire.

[Mexican Hat]

My first choice was Dynex Dux but given the incredible cost of the line, I started looking into swaging machines for much more reasonable SS wire.
I could find nothing that would do the job with any assurance, after looking all over the world and talking to numerous manufacturers of hand swaging machines. The problem is not that the machines can't generate perfectly strong swages but that there is no standardization of the smaller, hand machines and the fittings. Metric v Imperial, oval v round or square, machine designed for copper or Al fittings and not SS and so on. Well, there was the guy in China who assured me that his square die hydraulic press would work fine on round swage fittings. I opted not to trust his reassurances.
Then I found a factory in SA that has all the expensive German machinery for heat setting dyneema with a line that meets all the requirements for standing rigging when sized correctly. And at a 1/4 of the price, delivered in the US, when compared to Dux. Might be worth looking into since you're in the right hemisphere anyway. I can PM you the company details if you're interested in pursuing this option.

[skenn_ie]

Re: Lightning immunity. Stainless is not a good conductor, aluminium is, so your mast is more likely to get damaged than the stays. A heavy cinductor between the base of the mast (or lightning conductor) connected to a large copper, aluminium of mild-steel bolt through the bottom of the hull. You could glue a tube around that bolt, coming above the w/l, so that if the bolt gets vaporised, you won't take water. As for swaged rigging, I have heard of it letting go, though that may have been due to compatibles that aren't. You could get a sample joint and get it tested to destruction. There are plenty of self-contained hydraulic presses around, it is the dies that are critical to a good joint.

[Philippe63]

I use the $100 swager pictured, but only for decking ballustrading, i.e. a house. I have done hundreds of them, can't say I have had any failures but the tool is a bit crude, often bending the fitting itself. I would be very cautious, perhaps do some samples and then get a qualified rigger to check. Anyway, I live in Perth, you can have a go with mine, just get in touch.