[Public-list] rigging upgrades

[Rachel]

On Mar 5, 2005, at 10:18 AM, William Wallace wrote:

> 316 doesn't have the corrosion resistance of 304; I forget now, but I 
> used to have a steel book with the various percentages of nickel, 
> chromium, etc. in the different stainless steel ranges...

I thought it was the other way around, and 316 is slightly less strong, 
but more corrosion resistant.  Unless my memory is really going, we 
went with 316 when heading for the tropics, on the rigger's 
recommendation (not an A-30 though, so can't specifically comment on 
whether to change wire size).
>
> Some sailors complain that Norseman fittings can be hell to change at 
> sea, when the wind is blowing 40 knots and your boat is buffeted about 
> by ten foot waves!  Those times, it always seems, are when the rigging 
> goes!

Okay, I'm going to sound like a real contrarian today, I guess :-).   
First of all, I can't imagine doing a *swage* at sea in ten-foot waves. 
  I mean, who carries a swaging machine?  The one at the rig shop that 
made our rigging was the size of a VW Beetle...  Not saying I could 
deal with a Norseman either, but it would be easier (also note chain 
idea below).

Actually, we would have gone with some kind of mechanical terminals 
(Norseman, Sta-Lock, etc.), but didn't because of cost.  What we did do 
was bring the longest of our old (but still servicable) stays and a few 
Sta-Locks as spares.  When we got to Panama, we discovered that one of 
our stbd. lower shrouds was starting to "unwind" up near the top swage 
(we'd replaced everything *but* the lowers), so we had to replace it.

We would have preferred new rigging wire (to keep our spare as a 
spare), but, alas, there was none of our size (forget now what it was, 
but not "uncommon") to be had in Panama City anywhere, and it would 
have taken a couple of weeks to order it; we had our transit coming up, 
and some friends flying in for a vacation, so we didn't want to wait.

So, we did use our spare wire, rigged up with our brand-new Sta-Locks 
we'd brought along, and were good to go in less than a day and trip up 
the mast.  I guess what I'm saying here is that even if a person goes 
with swages, it's good to have a few mechanical terminals along to go 
with your spare rigging wire.

As a side note, we also went with Moitessier's idea of having a foot or 
so of chain and some bulldog clamps to use in case we needed to extend 
a shroud or stay but didn't have quite enough wire.  Or if we'd already 
used our spare rigging wire but needed to cut off a swage and re-use 
existing wire.  Or for those emergencies in 10' seas, which we luckily 
didn't have.

Have fun in Central America!  We really enjoyed it and I'll go back as 
soon as I can.

--- Rachel
boat shopping on a budget


 1110040839.0