49 year old rig? Lookin' pretty good!

Over the weekend I worked on pulling the standing rigging off the boat so that I could do a visual inspection.  This was somewhat of a challenge, as then top of the mast sticks about six feet off the front of the boat, about ten feet in the air.  What makes it more difficult is that the ground is snow covered, and I do not have a step ladder.  I managed to overcome these difficulties without too much difficulty. 

 The picture to the left is the top of the mast.  This is where the majority of the standing rigging connects to hold the mast up.   This was also the logical place to start in taking the rigging off.  As you can see, it was labeled before being removed, as the wires and fittings are generally identical when removed.  Since much of the rig will probably be reused, it is important to know where the individual wires came from. 

To the right is the cast aluminum fitting on the top of the mast that is the connection point for the forestay, backstay, topping lift, and shims for the halyards.  What the picture shows are the topping lift (to hold the end of the boom up when the main sail is not raised) and the shims (pulley wheels) the allow the halyards (ropes/wires to lift the sails) to run without chaffing.  The top shim is broken, and in need of replacement.  The bottom one is in pretty good shape, but will be replaced anyway.  If I am going to the trouble of replacing one or two of the shims, why not replace them all as cheap insurance against chaffing?  Plus, the ones on the other side of the mast-top fitting are corroded into place and do not turn.  This is a sure sign that replacement is necessary. While I was banging away up on the top of the mast, I noticed that there were spiders crawling around.  Spiders on boats are not unusual.  When we would go sailing on my dad's Kalik 40 on the Chesapeake Bay, we would spend the first five minutes or so on the boat clearing spider webs from the standing rigging and squashing whatever we found for spiders crawling on deck.  The standing rigging makes a great place for webs, since the wind blows through it, bringing the spiders food.  What was surprising about seeing them over the weekend was that it was about 20 or 25 degrees.  Generally insects are not out when it is that cold.  I guess they did not take to being disturbed from their winter sleep. 

When I talked to Jim from Port Rigging, he was very concerned when I mentioned that the backstay had ceramic pieces in it.  To the left is one of the ceramic pieces.  As you can see, the piece is crimped between two lengths of wire.  This is a very poor way to secure the back stay.  Jim said that this kind of connection, with the tight wire bends and crimp connectors, could fail in as little as 20 knots (approx. 22 mph) of wind.  I am not okay with that!  The reason for the ceramics being in the backstay in the first place is to isolate a length of the backstay to be used as an antenna for say, the onboard VHF radio.  While having a permanent antenna without having to buy one is great, but at the risk of losing the entire rig and the safety of those aboard is unacceptable.  I happen to like to sail on heavy wind days.  I used to race dingies in the fall and spring, and sometimes we would go out on days that there were small craft advisory warnings by the US Coast Guard.  This meant that it was determined that the wind was too strong for small boats (25+ knots of wind speed) to operate safely, so they should not be on the water.  This was directed at boats bigger than the 14 foot dingies we were sailing, as well as boats that had more than just human ballast.  My point is, sailing in heavy wind, when you know what you are doing, is a lot of fun!  When you have an inherent (and fixable) flaw in your rig, it is unwise to sail at all, let alone in heavy wind. 

Since we are talking flaws  in the rig, take a look at the next two photos.  What you are looking at is one of the lower shrouds.  More specifically, you are looking at the swaged (crimped) on fitting that connects the wire to the hull and mast.  This is a very structural part of the rig, so it is important that it is in good condition.  As I am trying to show here, this fitting is cracked.  The second photo shows a crack on the opposite side of the same fitting.  The cracks mean that the fitting is no good and needs to be replaced. 

I wanted to go with mechanical fittings on the ends of the rigging, but it is not practical for the moment.  What the mechanical connectors do for me is give me the ability to replace just the wire, or just the connector, in the rigging.  The most important thing is it is something I can do myself without buying an expensive swage tool.  Here is the catch: each mechanical fitting (Norseman or Staylok brands) cost about $100 per fitting.  That means for replacing the lower shroud, it will cost $200 for just the fittings, and not including the wire to bridge the gap between the fittings (approx. $3/foot).  To replace the pair, as rigging should be done, it would be about $500 with wire.  That is $500 for the smallest set of shrouds/stays on the boat.  With the swaged on connectors like the ones in the pictures (approx $20 each), both lowers could be replaced for about $100 in parts.  While I would like the ability to change the rigging on my own, the cost at the moment is impossibly high for such wants.  Also, I am not planning on cruising into the 3rd world on this boat, so the need to be able to fix all of the systems on the boat is not as important.  The other consideration is that I might not keep this boat for very long.  I might decide it is too small for my purposes, and need something else.  Then I have just spent a whole lot of money for someone else to benefit from.  Not that that is a bad thing, but I would not see the return on the investment.

In general, I have a hard time believing that this rig is original.  Unless this rig was pulled down at the end of every season and stored indoors, there is no accounting for the generally great condition of the standing rigging other than it was replaced not too long ago.  In any case, rigging is supposed to only last about 20 years (as the standard goes, but always with exceptions), so having a 49 year old rig in wonderful shape is dubious.  Plus, the ceramics used in the backstay are prone to solar/IR degradation, so they should not be in that great of shape either.  In any case, it is nice to know that the rigging is not bad, in general, and my replacement costs are not going to be huge.


 Several weekends ago, when it was in the 50's and I did some glassing on the boat, I was able to glass over the third through hull hole for the head.  Instead of trying to use a plastic sheet to achieve the same hull curve, I decided that masking/painter's tape would do just fine.  This is NOT a racing boat, so extreme accuracy and fairness (smoothness) are not necessarily warranted.  It turns out, I should have used masking tape on the other holes, as this one turned out perfectly smooth, so no sanding is required.  I never said my efforts would be perfect or go correctly the first time. 


I am not sure what to do next, more destruction or more construction.  Please chime in with your thoughts as to what I should do next!  Pull the port bunk out, or build hatches so I can enclose the cabin?