July 2008

We need to change our rigging. Its been up there for at least 12 years and has gone a bit, well, saggy. But it's the middle of summer, we dont want to take the mast down, so we're going to change it while the mast is still on the boat.
Easy.

We've chosen to stick with galvanised rigging. We have it on the boat at the moment and it is brilliant. Unlike stainless steel, you can actually see when there is a problem with any part. It also is much less likely to just snap without warning. The only part which is stainless steel is the forestay- galvanised stretches, which is no good for a furling genoa. We also have stainless coated bronze turnbuckles which are very strong.

The general plan was to go up the mast and measure the distance between the points at the top and the points at the bottom. Our clever rigger then allows for the turnbuckle and cuts the rigging to length. We then go up ourselves take one piece off, lower it down, hoist the new one up and secure it in place- all the while relying on the other stays and shrouds for support for the person up the mast. Can't see what the problem is myself (mainly as Jay was going up there!)

I have to say, our existing rigging was a rusty brown colour (mainly due to it being rusty) We were so impressed that the rigging was silver and sparkling! Gives the whole outside of the boat a complete lift. We were also able to get rid of those horrible supports for our tabernacle.


 


 


 


 


 

 

© 2008 - Miss Moneypenny J and K All rights reserved.

Changing the rigging

Look how rusty and brown it is!
Our first problem was that we were upgrading the cap shrouds from 8mm to 10mm wire- great idea, except that the steel chain plates embedded into the concrete deck were made for 8mm. Hmmm. So we had to drill out the centre hole to make it big enough for the turn buckle bolt to go through- while hoping that the drilling didnt weaken the chain plate.
Then it was a simple matter of climbing the mast. We've added in an extra log book entry about how we do that. This all went very simply until Jay had to swing out to the end of the spreaders to secure the end piece which holds the cap shroud in place- that took a very good balancing act.
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