Replacing Our Standing Rigging - Pt. One
It was mid-April and we were anchored in Watmough Bay on Lopez Island, one of the more dramatic and beautiful spots in the San Juan Islands. A heat wave had changed winter into summer, and we were getting our first taste of cruising without having to wear a parka. I took advantage of the good weather to do some bottom cleaning and thorough inspections of the boat.
That is when I found it, a crack on the leading edge of our forestay chainplate. My heart sank. A chainplate is a burley piece of stainless steel that is through-bolted to the hull, or in this case welded to our bowsprit. Our standing rigging, the wires that hold up the mast, attaches to the chainplate. A crack in a chainplate could lead to it failing, and especially in the case of the forestay, could bring down the whole mast.
Via sitting at anchor in Watmough Bay
Our standing rigging had already been on my mind since we bought the boat. It was original, making it 17 years old. The rule of thumb for standing rigging is that it should be replaced every 10-15 years depending on the where the boat is and how it has been used. Here in the PNW, rigs typically last longer thanks to the regular fresh water wash down courtesy of mother nature. Via spent the last decade here, but also spent time in California, Mexico, the US East Coast, and the Bahamas, all areas that take a bigger toll on standing rigging.
Hal, the grandfatherly South African who was the boat’s caretaker for the previous owner, is also a rigger. He told me he felt the rig was sound especially since it had seen very little real sailing. It sounds like the last owners mostly motored. I knew the chainplate would need to be addressed, but I also felt that maybe this was just a sign that we ought to replace all the rigging before we go off shore. Safety wise, the most important things to ensure are 1) keep water out of the boat, 2) keep the boat off the rocks, 3) keep everyone on board, 4) keep the mast up, 5) keep the rudder on. It was time to focus on #4.
I spoke to a rigger in Port Townsend, who gave me a rough estimate for the cost of new rigging and then for the labor cost. She basically said expect to spend $20,000, a quarter of which was parts. That was certainly not in the budget. She also gave me a really hard sell which I found off-putting, but she made some valid points, like “if you don’t do it now, when/where will you do it?”. Getting rigging to remote parts of the world can be expensive and sometimes impossible. I also learned that the mast would have to get pulled out of the boat. This is a big deal, expensive and a huge hassle, but in the end it is cheaper than paying a rigger to go up and down the mast 20 times to replace the rigging with the mast up.
Up to this point I have done all the work on the boat myself. I began to consider if I should just tackle this rigging myself as well. I remembered watching Brian replace his own rigging on SV Delos, and while I know my MacGyver skills are nowhere near Brian’s, I felt that it was totally doable. After all, the rig is just a bunch of pins and mechanical fittings. I decided it was time to give Hal a call to discuss it.
I explained to Hal my findings on the chainplate and that I was contemplating doing the work myself. I learned that his assessment that the rigging was sound was largely based on the assumption that the boat would remain here in the PNW, but he said if we planned to go off shore, it was probably a good idea to change it out. Hal said he’d help me as much or as little as I wanted, and I could just pay him for his time. He said I could reuse the Norseman fittings as long as I got new cones, which would save a bundle. He also had a metal fab guy who he said was excellent and could look at my chainplates (I had also found corrosion on the fasteners for the inner forestay chain plate). After talking to Hal, I felt pretty sure I could tackle the job mostly myself, and do it for a fraction of what it would cost to hire a rigger.
At Hal’s recommendation, I reached out to Seco South, the company who built Via’s original rigging. Seco had specs for my rigging and good prices, but I would spend the next two months pulling my hair out trying to get my order placed. I have never had to work so hard to give a company my money. It was bizarre, but eventually I was able to confirm that their spec seemed accurate. I had been very clear that I needed to receive the rigging order no later than June 29, as this was the date I had scheduled to be in the Marina and have Dave, the metal fabricator, out to deal with the forestay chainplate. I wanted to tackle it all at once because I was going to have to pull apart the whole bowsprit to access the chainplate. Somehow the lady at Seco managed to delay my order enough times that it arrived on June 28. I opened up the three boxes, measured everything, and was relieved to find that it was all just as I had ordered it. Now I just hoped I had measured right and ordered the right stuff! I also had to place about 5 orders with other suppliers for things like clevis pins, Norseman cones, toggles, and new chainplate hardware. Amazingly, everything showed up just in time. Now the work would begin…
The crack I found in our forestay chainplate