They say standing rigging has a 10 year life expectancy. I thought bah humbug, it should last much longer. Well I was wrong. Strikhedonia has two sister ships in Mexico, we are all 2008 models and last spring one of them, Moon Drifter, found a crack in a swage. This led to the replacement of their standing rigging and brought a closer examination this fall for the rest of us. Jolly Dogs found a small crack in their outer diamond and I found a very small fracture in the upper swage on the outer shroud, not one you would like to fail. Decision made, this needed to be addressed.
Terminations at the top of the mast
Moon Drifter hired a guy in Puerto Vallarta (PV) to do the work. I’m always partial to going with recommendations so I called Eddie (contact details below) and scheduled a day to measure our rigging. The measurement was a pretty quick process taking less than an hour and Eddie felt it was a good idea to reuse the turnbuckles, double jaws, and threaded T-bars, so I’d only buy the wire rope and fittings to save some money. Before leaving PV I took pictures of all the wire terminations and a list of parts to order – or so I thought…
I sent the list to a couple rigging shops along with the pictures. There was some back and forth about the 45 degree double swage fitting in the middle of the inner diamond and it was determined that these are a custom made part. Perfect.
Specialized custom swage
After chasing down options for three weeks (the holidays didn’t help), a few phone calls, and too many emails to count, I had a solution for the specialized custom swage and more importantly parts ordered. Here is the summary:
- Rigging shops will not have this special custom swage
- Eddie custom fabricated two swages for Moon Drifter
- Seawind cannot provide any support since they have redesigned the spreader on 1160s and work with a new manufacturer
- Tempo Spars (from Australia) manufactured my rigging, mast, boom and spreaders can supply the custom swages
Roland at Tempo Spars had them in stock and 10 days later I had them ready to install. Actually I ordered four (two for me and two for Jolly Dogs), saving a bit on shipping. Total cost (with shipping) was $170 per swage.
Custom 45 degree double ended swage fitting
With that figured out, I could focus on ordering the wire rope and fittings. Quotes from Seawind, Rigworks, and Rigging And Hardware (RiggingOnly.com) arrived and it was time to consider my options. Seawind was out because the rigging on new 1160s doesn’t fit my boat. Rigworks is a great shop in San Diego but their pricing was a bit high, so I decided on Rigging And Hardware.
More back and forth with Dan from Rigging And Hardware, who was very patient, and I had a quote. But as I thought about it more and more, I decided if I was going to spend this much money why not get all new rigging. So back to Dan for a revised quote that included turnbuckles and other fittings. Just before pulling the trigger I wanted to be absolutely sure that the wires would be the correct length so one more round of emails and calls between everyone. I sent out more pictures and confirmed that the measurements Eddie took were as expected by Rigging and Hardware.
Yellow line showing measurement location on an eye toggle
Yellow line showing measurement location on a T-bar
Yellow line showing measurement location on a turnbuckle
NOTES:
1. ALL T-bar fittings are #10, my rigging was shipped with #8 threaded T-bar fittings, so I had to reuse the original ones
2. All the wires were about 1.5 inches too long, no idea where the mistake was made (rigger who measured or RiggingOnly.com), make sure to double check)
Here is the list of the rigging needed for a 2008 Seawind 1160:
(**you need to take your own measurements**)
Upper Shroud
Measured length: 13,881mm / 45 feet 6.5 inches
| Quantity Wires | Quantity Item/Wire | Description |
|---|---|---|
| 2 | 1 | Swage Rigging Toggle Jaw ME for 10mm Wire 5/8"Pin |
| 2 | 10mm 1x19 type 316 Stainless Wire Rope |
|
| 2 | 1 | Jaw To Swage TFB for 10mm Wire 5/8" Pin |
Lower Shroud
Measured length: 7,544mm / 24 feet 9 inches
| Quantity Wires | Quantity Item/Wire | Description |
|---|---|---|
| 2 | 1 | Swage Rigging Toggle Jaw ME for 10mm Wire 5/8"Pin |
| 2 | 10mm 1x19 type 316 Stainless Wire Rope |
|
| 2 | 1 | Jaw To Swage TFB for 10mm Wire 5/8" Pin |
Inner Diamond
Measured length: 7,239mm / 23 feet 9 inches
NOTE: The wire was cut in half due to custom swage fittings from Tempo Spars and Eddie made the final wire rope cut and pressed the custom swages
| Quantity Wires | Quantity Item/Wire | Description |
|---|---|---|
| 2 | 1 | Swage Custom 45 Degree Double Ended (from Tempo Spars) |
| 4 | 8mm 1x19 type 316 Stainless Wire Rope |
|
| 4 | 1 | Swage Threaded Turnbuckle Stud for 8mm and 5/16 Wire 1/2-20 X 3 1/4 RH |
| 4 | 1 | Turnbuckle Body OpenStyle 1/2-20 X 6 1/2" |
| 4 | 1 | Swage Threaded T-bar for 8mm and 5/16 Wire |
Outer Diamond
Measured length: 12,852mm / 42 feet 2 inches
| Quantity Wires | Quantity Item/Wire | Description |
|---|---|---|
| 2 | 1 | Swage T-bar for 8mm and 5/16 Wire |
| 2 | 8mm 1x19 type 316 Stainless Wire Rope |
|
| 2 | 1 | Swage Threaded Turnbuckle Stud for 8mm and 5/16 Wire 1/2-20 X 3 1/4 RH |
| 2 | 1 | Turnbuckle Body OpenStyle 1/2-20 X 6 1/2" |
| 2 | 1 | Swage Threaded T-bar for 8mm and 5/16 Wire |
The total materials cost (including shipping) for the complete replacement was $2,939.75
If I had only replaced the wire rope and fittings, the cost would be been reduced to $2,174.89
As I mentioned above, Eddie installed and tuned my rigging. He is located out of La Cruz but also works in the Nuevo Vallarta and Puerto Vallarta marinas. He can be contacted here:
Eddie’s Boat Management & Rigging Services
Eduardo Sanchez
Cell: 52-1-322-205-4282
Email: eddielokz@hotmail.com
Eddie speaks perfect English and charges $60 per hour. For my job (measurement, installation, and tuning) the cost was $400.
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