Advice on replacing standing and running rigging.

Hi SeaBreezers,

To begin at the beginning, I must pay my respects to all those whose posts on this forum have been an invaluable source of knowledge and wisdom. Many thanks for being so generous with your experience.

As background, I bought my first yacht, a Currawong 30 located at Pittwater, in May of this year but being in Melbourne, we have only be able to visit her once during the brief period between lock downs. I'm planning the delivery trip (with a qualified delivery skipper) to the Gippsland Lakes for December this year. In the meantime, I'm arranging to have both the standing and running rigging replaced. The standing rigging is at least 17 years old and most of the running rigging is in poor condition (the jib furling line parted while sailing during our visit). Unfortunately, it doesn't look as though we will be able to get up to Pittwater when the work is being done due to the current lock down.

I would appreciate some guidance on a couple of things.

First, given that the mast will be out when the standing rigging is replaced this would be a good time to check for any corrosion. Previous posts on Currawongs and Brolgas suggest checking the base of the mast and the plate on which it sits. Any other areas specific to these boats that would be worth investigating?

Second, I'm expecting that most of our time sailing will be single or short-handed. To make this easier and safer, I'd like to run the sail controls back to the cockpit, most are currently at the mast. And here I must thank Ramona for sending me a drawing of the rope arrangement on his Currawong 30. I'm not sure a novice such as I could cope with 18 lines at the cockpit.

So, what sail controls would you recommend be brought back to the cockpit as a compromise between complexity, ease of use and efficient sailing? At present, I'm converging on the following: main halyard, vang, outhaul, main topping lift, Cunningham, first reef tack, first reef clew, second reef tack, second reef clew (the current main has only 2 reefing points). This is a total of 9 controls. It's possible we could leave out the topping lift and use a spring vang to get this down to 8.

A search of previous SeaBreeze posts turned up an interesting discussion of reefing systems but I didn't find any discussion on which controls should be brought back. Perhaps personal preference plays too large a part?

Thanks again for all past help and in advance for this help.

Cheers, Peter

Im with Lydia on this one.
on a boat that size its so quick and easy to reef at the mast that it may not be worth all the added friction and nuisance running lines back.

Won't go into running rigging layout as it is covered well above.

Is your mast and boom anodized coated or etch primer and two pack polyurethane paint coated?

At the risk of repeating prior comments while the mast is being re-rigged suggest remove all stainless fittings to check for galvanic corrosion of the aluminium mast underneath. If there is any at all rectify it suitably and re-fasten the fitting with appropriate monel or 316 stainless rivets or 316 stainless metal thread fasteners as relevant to what the original fasteners were, also ensuring that the fitting and the rivets / fasteners are liberally coated with Tef-Gel to provide the corrosion barrier for the next 20 years. If a painted mast assume you will re-paint the mast with 2 pack polyurethane - 2 coats over an etch primer coat or 2.

For painted masts the telltale sign of aluminium corrosion under stainless fittings is blistering of the paint around the perimeter of the stainless fittings. For anodized masts the tell tale signs are not as obvious but this does not necessarily mean it is not there. As per prior post I rectified a Farr727 mast under the spreaders which the corrosion barrier had failed - there was a hole in the mast each side under the ss spreader band about 2 inches diameter - dunno how the mast stayed up the last black noreaster I sailed it in. Rectified by putting external sleeve band of same mast section around, epoxied to the bare alum of the mast and monel riveted, then re-riveted the spreader band with heaps of Duralac. Tefgel has now taken over from Duralac. Of course the spreader angle reduces a bit but no issue.

Thanks Lydia and Stray for putting forward an alternative idea. One thing I'm learning is that owning a boat challenges our preconceptions. I'll think carefully about the points you make. One possible factor is that I'm 64 and not as agile as I used to be due to falling off motorcycles and some other health problems. Things will get better as I get fitter but I wont be leaping around the boat like my teenage sons.

Thanks also MichaelR and r13. The layout on the Top Hat sounds similar to the one I was considering but with single line reefing. And thanks r13 for the tips and information on corrosion affecting the mast and boom, this kind of experience is gold.

To answer r13's question, the mast is painted but the paint on both the mast and the boom is missing in some places, blistered in others and the surveyor recommended repainting both in the near future. I will ask the rigger to carefully examine the mast for corrosion, especially at the points you raise. Unfortunately, due to the lock down, we can't be there and do some of the work ourselves but it seems prudent to get it done before the delivery trip and accept the additional cost as the price paid for the joy of sailing. I will also ask about repainting the mast and boom while they are out of the boat, it seems that this would be a good thing to do.

Once again, thanks for the differing views and the detailed information. For someone like myself, who is taking their first tentative steps in boat ownership, this is extremely useful.

Cheers, Peter

Troy goes through the thinking in this video. Like him my 38 footer has no lines led back to the cockpit (it is a cat). When dropping a kite or pulling it up, or playing with a reacher I want to have the halyards close to the foredeck. I can set and drop kites on my cat singlehanded, if you have a good autopilot, pulling up the main is no issue either. I have to fuss around tying the reefs and boom bag in anyway so I have to be at the mast when reefing.

Another point of view. We changed ours for all lines to run back to in front of the cockpit, but left the winches on the mast so we can use them if required. I have removed the clutches on the mast, but they are easy to re-install when required. They were for the main, genoa, jib, and spinnaker. The 2 reefing lines, pole & boom topping lifts, kicker and vang already came back to the cockpit.

We have an old style vang, so if it blowing, we drop the boom to just above the cockpit, lock off the main sheet and use another handy piece of rope in a triangle at the rear of the boom, then drop the main from the cockpit. Easy to do single handed and can be tidied up later. If it is not blowing, we do it at the mast.

Sometimes you just have to see what works for you. Time spent on other peoples boats will also give you a good idea for your own boat.

I just picked my new old boat up from the rigger yesterday. Had all the standing rigging changed and some running rigging (which I did myself). They did a great job. I did drop in every day to see how they were going.

Personally I would want to be able to check in to the riggers every few days to ask questions, make decisions etc. Riggers are business people, making decisions every day as they come across things. Balancing time, revenue etc. They also miss things or make mistakes. There were lots of times where the rigger showed me stuff, drew diagrams etc. There were a couple of times when I said "shouldnt that be fixed? or is that meant to look like that?". They ran into problems which required me to make a decision.

For all those additional changes like moving the running rigging back to the cockpit I would do this later so you can have a say over it, sail it, refine it. I would sail it, work out how you want it done then do it. You can likely do this with the mast in.

Also, I have seen a few boats now where ship-writes and riggers have drilled holes through the deck without coring it properly or without bedding it properly. Whoever ran the gear back to my cockpit didnt core the deck when they installed all those blocks and now I have some rotten core. Something you wont notice when they do it but will notice it in ten years.

Anyway. Thats my two cents. All the people above are probably way more experienced than I. Im just onto my second boat in a year.