{"id":45459,"date":"2021-05-12T17:00:56","date_gmt":"2021-05-12T21:00:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.cruisingworld.com\/?p=45459"},"modified":"2024-01-04T15:37:01","modified_gmt":"2024-01-04T20:37:01","slug":"sailboat-rigging-tips-from-a-pro","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cruisingworld.com\/story\/how-to\/sailboat-rigging-tips-from-a-pro\/","title":{"rendered":"Sailboat Rigging Tips from a Pro"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\n\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\"Sailboats <\/div>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n
\n As the departure point for the ARC Rally to the Caribbean, the Canary Islands provides plenty of work opportunities for a professional rigger.<\/span>\n David Bond<\/span>\n\n\t\t\t\t <\/figcaption>\n <\/section>\n\t\t\n\n\n

Clive Strickett is a rugged guy, so it takes strong arms to winch him aloft to the masthead. But that\u2019s exactly where you want him: eyeball to halyard sheave, looking for problems. He\u2019s a veteran rigger<\/a> with a keen eye and a background in ocean racing on the competitive Maxi circuit. On the island of Lanzarote, where I first encountered Strickett, he has a reputation for detail.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We were on the dock at Marina Lanzarote in a fresh breeze of about 20 knots. It was sunny and warm, the sort of weather you\u2019d expect when you\u2019re about 400 nautical miles off the coast of Morocco. These Canary Islands, of which Lanzarote is the farthest north, are a staging area for boats embarking on a trans-Atlantic crossing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Strickett had just been lowered to the deck of a Bavaria 41 by the boat\u2019s skipper after checking the spreaders, and was now shaking his head. Problems. There are always problems. This time it was mismatched metals. \u201cIt\u2019s rare to find a boat that has nothing wrong with it,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Never mind the Atlantic\u2014the first leg of the trip from the United Kingdom and Europe to the Canaries can be brutal on gear. And that\u2019s before the 3,800-nautical-mile downwind crossing to the Caribbean. It\u2019s wise to have a guy like Strickett check your rig before you leave. \u201cI\u2019ve been doing this for a few years now,\u201d he said. \u201cI might see a problem that the owner missed. They weren\u2019t looking for it, or weren\u2019t looking where they should have been. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou never know what\u2019s going to happen on boats. Even on new boats,\u201d he continued. \u201cA friend of mine had a new catamaran, a big one, with a carbon-fiber mast. One of the genoa clutches ripped right off the mast. Brand new boat, right from the factory. We had to get the OK from the factory in France to make a repair. We fixed it, and he crossed the Atlantic.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Minor rig problems compound quickly under pressure. Strong winds funneling through these volcanic islands can mimic trade-wind sailing, but that doesn\u2019t mean that every boat is ready for the crossing. According to Strickett, safety lies in the details, and he points out where to look for potential problems in your rig. Here\u2019s what Strickett is looking for as he inspects a spar, from top to bottom.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Masthead: \u201cBe sure the sheave axles are secure. Sometimes the holes elongate or even crack. And then halyards can get mixed up. One boat that came through here from Tenerife was using the wrong halyard. They were using the spinnaker halyard instead of the genoa halyard. When I went up to look at it, the sheave box was completely gone; the rivets were all loose. The holes had elongated because the halyard was at the wrong angle. They didn\u2019t even realize it. It\u2019s tough to see what\u2019s happening aloft when you\u2019re on deck.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\"Sailor <\/div>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n
\n Clive Strickett inspects rigs from the top down, and pays special attention to the spreader tips. Where stainless steel meets aluminum, he notes, there\u2019s always corrosion.<\/span>\n David Bond<\/span>\n\n\t\t\t\t <\/figcaption>\n <\/section>\n\t\t\n\n\n

Working down the mast on a fractional rig, there might be additional sheave boxes fitted for internal halyards. \u201cMake sure all the rivets are tight. Anything fitted with bolts or rivets should be double-checked.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Spreaders: \u201cInspect the spreader tips; make sure they\u2019re OK and there\u2019s no corrosion. Whenever you get stainless steel and aluminum together, there\u2019s corrosion. One fleet of charter boats here had put 8 mm stainless bolts into the aluminum spreaders with no protection. Now the spreaders are corroding\u2014the holes get bigger and bigger. But not only that, the spreader was already weakened by putting big holes in it to begin with.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Shrouds: Broken or damaged wire rigging is the most common problem. \u201cMost cruising boats use 1-by-19 stainless wire. Inside, one strand can let go, then another. When you get up to four broken strands, the wire gets weaker and weaker, and eventually fails. If you\u2019re underway and that happens, then you have a big problem.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You also don\u2019t want extra weight aloft. \u201cSome people use Dyform, or compacted wire, which uses triangular-shaped strands around a core. If you compare a 10 mm Dyform wire to a 10 mm 1-by-19 wire, the Dyform is stronger. I once changed a 12 mm 1-by-19 wire to a 10 mm Dyform wire. It\u2019s the same strength, but I saved some weight aloft. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou can\u2019t take anything for granted,\u201d he continued. \u201cThere was a boat getting ready to head to the Mediterranean from here, which is a long slog to windward. He was all ready to go. Just as an afterthought, the owner had me look over the rig. Good thing. I found some broken wires in the forestay. The whole mast could have come down. So have a close inspection just to make sure there are no broken wires, and that the terminals don\u2019t have any cracks in them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Boom: \u201cOnce again, closely inspect the rivets. Loose padeyes on the boom get looser and can easily rip right out. The same goes for the gooseneck fittings. Check every bolt, every rivet for the slightest elongation of the holes or any loose rivets. I can\u2019t emphasize that enough. The padeye is usually secured to the boom with 5 mm Monel rivets, but those can pull loose after a sharp pull like a jibe. They can get yanked right out of the boom. Then what? As insurance, I usually remove the 5 mm rivets and replace them with 6.3 mm rivets, which are the largest you can use. If you\u2019ve had a big jibe and the boom hits a V1 (lower shroud), it might break or bend the boom. We fix booms at our engineering shop. They\u2019ll straighten it, put a patch on, weld it and then paint it. That makes it strong enough. New booms delivered to Lanzarote come from France, and the delivery fee alone can cost up to $3,500.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Read More:<\/b> Check your Boat\u2019s Rig<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Turnbuckles: \u201cSome people don\u2019t like to tape turnbuckles; they like to see what\u2019s going on with them. Fair enough. I wouldn\u2019t tape it all the way closed though. Just a little tape around the split pins so that they don\u2019t grab a sail or your ankle. On one boat that I inspected, the guy had taped up the whole thing. When we untaped it, it was all manky, which means pretty disgusting. The dirt will always get in somehow. If it\u2019s all taped up like that, you can\u2019t oil or lubricate it. I tell people: Now and then, service your turnbuckles. Take some turns off the turnbuckle. Make sure it\u2019s clean and then put a little Teflon gel on it, or some MolyKote grease. Then tighten it back up. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhen you haven\u2019t done it for some years,\u201d he added, \u201cthey seize up and you can\u2019t undo them. Especially a small turnbuckle. They\u2019re chrome-plated over bronze, and when you put a big spanner in there and turn it, it\u2019ll snap. And what you don\u2019t want is for a wire to snap when it\u2019s under load. It\u2019s just preventive maintenance. Do it every six months. It takes only a couple of hours.\u201d  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\"Sailors <\/div>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n
\n Strickett signs off on every rig, but he says that crews are responsible for the yacht\u2019s safety: \u201cIf you\u2019re not up to sailing the boat, then you shouldn\u2019t be there.\u201d<\/span>\n David Bond<\/span>\n\n\t\t\t\t <\/figcaption>\n <\/section>\n\t\t\n\n\n

Headsail Furlers: \u201cOn some ProFurl furlers, there are four black bolts that go into the furler: two that hold the cage on and two that hold the plate. On the older ones, the bolts are made of titanium, and they seize into the aluminum. I don\u2019t know how many I have had to drill out. But you have to drill them out properly. If it\u2019s a 6 mm bolt, first you drill straight down the middle of the hole with a 3 mm drill, then with a 4 mm, then a 5 mm, then a 5.5 mm. Hopefully it will come out with the heat and friction. \u2018Easy-out\u2019 [screw extractors] don\u2019t work. These things are seized together. Even heat doesn\u2019t work.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chain Plates: \u201cI inspected one boat with the chain plates so loose, they were actually moving. You could see where they had scratched the paint around the hull. Down below, look carefully at the chain plates. Make sure there\u2019s no cracking in the hull, no movement on the bolts. You can see where a bolt has bent a little, or if it\u2019s been pulled up or down. You\u2019ll see little scratch marks on the hull or the bulkhead.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mast Step: \u201cThere\u2019s a fine balance between the shrouds being too tight and too loose. There was a good-size catamaran that left here and got into some rough seas, rolling around. The shrouds were too loose, and on one roll, the mast jumped right out of its mast step. It was just for a moment, but in that moment, the mast went overboard.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the inspection on the Bavaria completed, as we walked up the gangway toward the marina office, I had one last question: \u201cIf something breaks underway, can a rigger or a boatyard be held responsible?\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Strickett answered, \u201cSometimes. We have a basic form that says something like: \u2018Rig checked. All found to be in good condition at the time of inspection.\u2019 And I sign it. So as far as I\u2019m concerned, everything was OK when I signed it. But if along the way, say it blows up to 40 knots and the crew still has their spinnaker up and the mast comes down, well, they might try to come back to us. So in my opinion, it boils down to this: If you\u2019re not up to sailing the boat, then you shouldn\u2019t be there. You just never know what\u2019s going to happen.\u201d  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

David Bond, a regular contributor to CW, is a writer, teacher and cruising sailor currently based in Germany. <\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When it comes to stuff that will take down a mast, a seasoned rigger in the Canary Islands has seen it all.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":18814,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"BS_author_type":"BS_author_is_guest","BS_guest_author_name":"David Bond","BS_guest_author_url":"","hydra_display_date":"May 12, 2021","hydra_display_updated":false,"arc_story_id":"TO3GCMYTQJB6FJIOZ2E7YEYICM","arc_website_url":"story\/how-to\/sailboat-rigging-tips-from-a-pro\/","arc_subtype":"right-sidebar","arc_exclude_from_feeds":false,"sponsored":false,"sponsored_label":"Sponsored Content","sponsored_display_label":false,"post_right_rail":true,"post_right_rail_ad_1":true,"post_right_rail_ad_2":true,"post_right_rail_ad_3":false,"post_right_rail_ad_4":false,"post_right_rail_recirc":true,"fixed_anchor_ad":true,"post_top_ad":true,"post_off_ramp":true,"post_taboola":false,"labels":false,"apple_news_api_created_at":"","apple_news_api_id":"","apple_news_api_modified_at":"","apple_news_api_revision":"","apple_news_api_share_url":"","apple_news_cover_media_provider":"image","apple_news_coverimage":0,"apple_news_coverimage_caption":"","apple_news_cover_video_id":0,"apple_news_cover_video_url":"","apple_news_cover_embedwebvideo_url":"","apple_news_is_hidden":"","apple_news_is_paid":"","apple_news_is_preview":"","apple_news_is_sponsored":"","apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_metadata":"\"\"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"","apple_news_slug":"","apple_news_sections":[],"apple_news_suppress_video_url":false,"apple_news_use_image_component":false,"footnotes":"","ad_settings_ads_on_this_page":true,"ad_settings_automatic_ad_injection_into_the_content":true,"ad_targeting":"","sponsored_image":false,"sponsored_url":"","social_share":true},"categories":[164],"tags":[183,1255,238,1399,396],"class_list":["post-45459","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-how-to","tag-how-to","tag-print-2021-april","tag-projects","tag-rig","tag-rigging"],"acf":[],"apple_news_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cruisingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45459","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cruisingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cruisingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cruisingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cruisingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45459"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.cruisingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45459\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cruisingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18814"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cruisingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45459"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cruisingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45459"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cruisingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45459"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}