When is rigging too big?

[Stumble]

Originally Posted by Adelie

Assuming you got your authority right Brion is correct up to the point that the mast OR BOOM hits the water then he's wrong, all of a sudden impact loads and solid water loads get added to the equation. That also assumes the original design was adequate which again is an assumption that is not guaranteed.

Increasing wire size does not make the boat roll faster, in fact it makes the boat roll slower which is safer in breaking waves.

Trying to spec rigging to survive striking the water is a rediculious idea. If for no other reason that the mast and rigging are designed to be roughly the same strength. If you want your rigging strong enough to survive a roll over you also need to replace the mast to be strong enough as well. Not to mention the deck, chainplates and bulkheads need to be beefed up to handle the new design spec.

This is the same reason airplanes wings aren't designed to hit the dirt.

[Snowpetrel]

I have always slightly overspec 'd my rigging, and been very glad of it every time one of my mast has been underwater. Maybe they would have survived with the original rigging size, maybe not. Not worth the risk to me to find out if the original rigging would have survived.