Rigging 101 (Part 1)

Rigging is one of those things that everyones knows is super important but most of us struggle to be on top of. It's also an easy subject to just forget about and hope for the best. Obviously that is not a good way to go!
When you break things down most aspects are just common sense and it's easily within the grasp of most people to get on top of their rigging and keep things safe.
This is the first of a two part series on rigging following a full re-rig of Fair Isle a cutter rigged Hans Christian 48T. We will take you through checking over the whole rig, changing all the standing rigging, fitting STA-LOK compression fittings and fitting a new Furlex unit from Selden.
In order to get the best advice and techniques to do the work we are filming with Jade Edwards-Leaney from The Boat Shed Wales. He was the rigger for Ian Herbert-Jones's boat 'Puffin' in the Golden Globe Race as well as an emergency re-rigging of Abilash Tomy's boat when it was damaged on the way to the start line. So there's no better rigger to get tips of the trade from.
Check out what The Boat Shed Wales can do here:
www.theboatshedwales.co.uk
We used STA-LOK for our rigging, we wanted their compression fittings because we think they are the best thing to have on the bottom of all the wire. We also used their wires and had the swage the top fitting because we know you can trust the quality of the stainless steel they use and they have excellent swaging machines. Check them out here:
www.stalok.com/
We chose Seldens Furlex unit for our yankee. Okay I admit I was smitten with that sexy top furler bearing right from when I saw it at the boat show, but having fitted the unit now I can say it's all made to the same very high standard, it was easy to fit and works like a dream so I'm very glad we chose it. Check out Selden here:
www.seldenmast.com/
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[@bloomheller22]

I’m about to re-rig my boat and this series is very helpful. Thanks to everyone involved!

[@hughburgess4168]

Fabulous technical raising awareness of the importance of regularly checking rigging….and that it is not a daunting task. ⛵️

[@darz3]

Great video, looking forward to part2

[@francismontocchio9910]

It’s so refreshing to hear your intelligent questions, Steve. Great video. Very informative. Thank you.

[@mememe5231]

Great information! Thank you for sharing

[@SV-Nikita]

thanks for the techtalk about the rigging, looking forward to part 2!

[@simonhantler8062]

great info you asked all the right questions for us

[@iherok]

Excellent video. Great job interviewing the rigger and getting the info. Looking forward to the second part.

[@thepigwillfly5869]

Great info, thanks. I always enjoy the technical videos, you do such a good job on presenting the info and I trust your opinion.

[@peterhaymaker7562]

I found this video really, really interesting. Thanks, P.

[@1962gms]

I've just boat a yacht and you, Sail Life and SV Impavidus are my go too channel's for 'how to' information. Keep up the great work and the brilliant video's ⛵

[@markwoods4574]

I have a 2016 Beneteau 48 I bought it used in 2018 I’ve had the rigging checked every year even with my last sailboat ⛵️, an old sailor gave me this advice back in the 1990’s best advice I’ve ever had.

[@RappinIggyG]

My favourite intro music... means there's something good to come! Very good content and looking forward to Part II. Cheers.

[@svfairisle]

You must be the only one that likes that music!

[@HeidiandFranny]

Perfect timing! The standing rigging guys are coming out today to replace several diamonds. Thanks for the primer :) f

[@svfairisle]

That’s good, I’ll get part 2 out for you guys in a day or two. It’s a common thing with the diamond configuration on cats to get them rubbing where they cross so good that you’re having them checked.

[@kevinswinden4882]

Thanks Steve very Interesting. Every days a school day !

[@rickkwitkoski1976]

Thank you!

[@billhanna8838]

Im glad you dont have turn buckle covers , Iv seen some serious problems with those .& Spreader end covers .

[@smulismuli7976]

There is a theory that GGR 2022 participant Tapio Lehtinen's boat might have snapped and consequently sunk in 5 mins in the southern ocean because of too high tension/load in the rigging (by a person who knows the boat Asteria well and actually had warned him

[@svfairisle]

Yes I’m keen to talk to Tapio, we interviewed him before the last GGR he’s a very experienced sailor and a very nice guy. I do feel he’s protecting his engineers though, I watched the live stream they did together. Personally I think it was a combination of very tight rigging (getting carried away with racing trim) and shaving too much off the hull. What came out in the live was that that put layers of Kevlar on the hull, well they wouldn’t have done that on an already very thick layup without take some off first. I think they took too much off.

[@smulismuli7976]

@@svfairisle Yes, I think you are spot on. The conversation I was referring to was on some Finnish sailing forum when the accident happened (I’m Finnish) and obviously can’t find it back. The boat sank in no time so something must have happened to the hull. The person who wrote the comment/explanation originally is obviously someone in the know of the re-build and understood the loads vs. structural strength and had raised a red flag which got ignored. The most important thing is that Tapio got rescued and that Kirsten got to him first and won. Both are great ambassadors for sailing ⛵️

[@gerhardvanwaltsleben8944]

Lekker man lekker 🇿🇦

[@commandoclark]

I noticed you had a piece of hardware attached to a shroud. Did Jade have an opinion on the dangers of attaching fittings like flag halyard cleats to shrouds?

[@svfairisle]

It’s not the best idea. I don’t have anything on my shrouds now except the baggy wrinkles and even they are detrimental to the stainless, Jade could see the surface wasn’t as good beneath the baggy wrinkle as elsewhere but it wasn’t a problem probably because they are high and it’s mainly rainwater that sits in them, with something lower that gets sea spray, probably not so good

[@johnhesten9189]

Great vid, but where's part2 ?

[@svfairisle]

It’ll be on Patreon in a day or two. We will find a slot to put it on YT soon.

[@mikevanzyl1520]

Hi there… Who did you use to make up your rigging? How long did it take from order to delivery? I have a Compass47 with double spreader; what would you estimate I should budget? Thanks a million Mike

[@svfairisle]

I think you should budget around £8,000 in materials if you do it the same way as us with STALOK fittings on the bottom end. You can do it cheaper with swage fittings but I like the compression fittings and STALOK do quality wire too. I'm not sure exactly what our cost was as we got a bit of a discount at the boat show and the Furlex was part of our final bill (very expensive, about as much as the whole rigging put together!) and I had a lot of extra bits as spares to cope with problrms in remote places. Jade was the rigger I brought in from Wales, one of the best in the world. If you google 'the boat shed Wales' you should find him

[@emmengel]

What do you and the professional think about about using dyneema for standing and running rigging?

[@svfairisle]

It can be a great thing, stronger, lighter, more able to see if it’s getting a problem. Jade is increasingly using dyneema and working out the best practices. I was tempted, but there are other considerations and problems. Can’t use it for the stays with roller furling and our SS extrusion for the radar. It has problems with tension in big temp changes, so it’s not all plain sailing

[@svfairisle]

It can be a great thing, stronger, lighter, more able to see if it’s getting a problem. Jade is increasingly using dyneema and working out the best practices. I was tempted, but there are other considerations and problems. Can’t use it for the stays with roller furling and our SS extrusion for the radar. It has problems with tension in big temp changes, so it’s not all plain sailing

[@amiabledave50]

Why didn't you replace the stainless wire to Dyneema? All that stainless weight topside would have been lost.

[@svfairisle]

I was tempted to go the Dyneema route. Can’t do the stays just the shrouds of course if you want to keep roller furling, but there are also issues with big temperature changes keeping the rigging the right tension. It’s not as straight forward as you might think

[@Methoes123]

Why don't they spot weld or a complete weld on the swedge fitting?

[@svfairisle]

Pressing the wire with a swage fitting isn't lacking strength, it's the fact that water can get in because there are tiny gaps between the wires. the water sits there, goes stagnant and deprives the stainless of oxygen which allow crevice corrosion. Welding the wire is unlikely to stop this unless unless it's such a harsh weld that it basically fuses the wires together in one lump. I'm not sure this is possible and even if it was I think it would produce a weak point where the solid fused part meets the strands. It's for this reason we don't solder wires on a boat.

[@Methoes123]

@@svfairisle Thanks for the swage correction. What if the wire was pre dipped in a light application weight elastic coating? would this reduce corrosion within strands?

[@svfairisle]

@@Methoes123 The challenge is coating in between the strands. Dipping a wire in anything is very unlikely to get that coating into the tiny voids between the wires in the core. Some riggers think it will work having sealant in there and still add various products. But over the years with the bottom sewage being like a bucket with the wires squashed in there if it’s possible for water to find a way in it will. The compression fittings allow water it and out so water should pass through which is a million times better than having it stuck there. And you can run a hose in it every now and then to get the salt and any contaminants out.

[@Viendopiedra5029]

What was the total cost of your re-rig?

[@svfairisle]

I’ll add it all up and put it in part 2. In the description at least, it doesn’t make very interesting video talking figures.

[@Viendopiedra5029]

@@svfairisle Thanks! Im looking at re-rigging a Baba 40 which is +- comparable. Thanks both of you for all your great work!

[@WilliamAArnett]

Carbon fiber rigging is stronger and lighter. And more expensive. But if cost was no object would you (or Jade) use carbon for a cruising boat?

[@svfairisle]

Well I considered dyneema rigging for the shrouds. I do think it’s a good idea and I know Jade is working more with this sort of rigging now. It has some good advantages like letting you know when it’s starting to degrade (it goes fuzzy on the outside) & yes it’s obviously much lighter and in many ways easier to repair/jury rig. It is more liable to chafe though and can give you tension problems in big temp changes. Of course you can’t use it for the stays with roller furling though & I’m not going back to Hank on sails! I’m hopeful that on our next rerig in 10 years or so we will go at least partly dyneema

[@WilliamAArnett]

@@svfairisle Dyneema also stronger than steel but it is not carbon fiber.

[@WilliamAArnett]

But now there are Dyneema-carbon hybrid composites that may be even better.

[@svfairisle]

@@WilliamAArnett I know, but as far as I can tell carbon fibre is only really a consideration for racing boats, even the HH sticks to Dyneema at the moment

[@tomriley5790]

One issue for carbon in boat construction is because it's more rigid it can make a boat more "boomy" than a thicker GRP hull - which isn't great for sleeping at night on a cruising boat - that's one of the reasons Dazcat give for not using carbon throughout the boat.