Lost the Rig

[vpbarkley]

Excellent message.

I'm about to have the standing rigging replaced on my 40' 2010 Beneteau. I had an excellent surveyor and a well respected rigger look at the shrouds and stays. They both concur that it's time to replace the rigging and I accept that.

I know that both fatigue and corrosion play a part in the aging of standing rigging. Part of the problem here is that visual evidence of anything amiss is often vanishingly small.

Toward longer lived and safer rigging, I wonder if there's:
1. any way to prevent water accumulation at the lower swage fittings, perhaps potting new swaged fittings in epoxy +/or epoxy filled cable
2. a proof test or other definitive test that could establish the fitness of the rigging, proof tests are done at loads well above working tension

Thank you for any thoughts.

[donradcliffe]

Lower swage fittings are problematic. The PO of my boat used to melt beeswax into the new fittings, but I used swageless fittings and filled them with 5200 as I made them up.

[captainwd40]

Big story for such a small boat …………. but as we all know ……… Oh Sh*t …… comes in all shapes and sizes.


…. Cheers!

[GrowleyMonster]

@MccNeo, thanks for posting. Very nice detailed analysis. And thanks to all who replied with their own tales of woe, and the happy endings and cautionary cautions. I just bought my latest boat a bit over a year ago and I can only assume that the standing rigging is now 40 years old LOL! I KNOW it needs replacing. But money is tight and I need to be a little bit scared of that old wire so I will actually do what I know I must do.



Backstay and shrouds (sloop rig) definitely will be galvanized. Forestay likely will be SS and I will likely end up adding another one for a second headsail. Hanked on jib, which is why I am thinking SS for that wire. Thoughts? Go galvanized, anyway, and just replace when the galv wears through and rust appears? Thinking about going with roller furling if I can salvage the parts and not have to buy new. It would be way cool to have two furling headsails to pole out wing and wing.


Every boat I have ever owned that was not self built was "of a certain age" and such boats are usually well equipped with tools out of obvious need. An angle grinder makes short work of severing hard wire if it can be safely used in consideration of the elements. Sometimes bolt cutters are great, sometimes not so great. Often these get neglected and rusted, and chipped blades don't get replaced, and funny how spares just never make it onto the shopping list. I got some 36" somewhere... haven't used them in so long, I don't know where. On the old boat, certainly, and you would think there just isn't any place to hide a tool that big on a small boat but apparently there is. So note to myself, find them and give them some TLC and move them to the big boat, or get new ones, and stow where they are accessible and obvious.


It sucks that you went through such a calamity. It was generous to post about it, warts and all. It helps everyone else to think about what they need to have on hand and what they need to do in an emergency.