New Standing Rigging - Approximate cost?

[foobie]

A great blue heron... (yes, a heron) impaled it's wing on my mast head antenna. Don't ask me how this happened as I was travelling at the time.  Reportedly the poor thing spent many hours up there fending off attacking ospreys and crows while the clown patrol at my marina fumbled around doing nothing. Eventually, he got himself off of the antenna and into the water from whence he was plucked and delivered to the local heron rescue by a kindly neighbor. BTW: He's recovering nicely. (Side question: Is dried heron blood all over the the deck a blessing or a curse?) 

At any rate - Bad for heron and bad for boat. X lbs of bird flailing at the top of my mast for hours devastated all of my indicators, mast head light, VHF ant, etc.,. Not being one for the bosun's chair any more, I am planning on having the mast hauled to do repairs, paint it, etc. which leads me to the purpose of this post.

Since I doubt that the standing rigging has been touched for many, many years (previous owner = escaped mental patient). What should I plan to spend to replace all of the standing rigging on her?

Is it cheaper to get the wire hooked up while the mast is down and they will install the balance once it's up?

Never messed with the standing rig on any of my boats, so this is new to me.


As always, Thanks for your help gang!

Steve

[chuck53]

First of all, I'm not even close to being an expert on this, but I will tell you what I would do if it were me.
I've got an '87 and I'm sure it has the original rigging and it is in good shape, too good to replace.
That being said, I'd contact my insurance company since this does seem like a legitimate claim.
Then I would hire someone who does these kinds of repairs from a bosun's chair and let them do it.  Let the insurance company pay for it less my deductible. 
I'm sure that would be a lot cheaper than taking down the mast even if you don't replace the rigging.

[Mike and Joanne Stimmler]

It might be worth the cost to have a rigger check it out and do a full rigging inspection to see exactly what you need.
Pulling the mast is a bit expensive if you don't need to and the rigger can tell you that too.
If you do need to replace the standing rigging, this can be done with the mast up. I would start with Catalina parts parts dept and get a price, then see what the riggers price is compared to that.

Mike

[MarkT]

I replaced the standing rigging on the C27 I previously owned. The folks at SECO South http://www.secosouth.com/ were much cheaper than any other place I investigated. Be sure to mark your turnbuckle positions before you take the mast down. Give them a call and I'm sure they can help.

Mark Tamblyn

[WTunnessen]

Consider getting a rigging survey first. My standing rigging is the same vintage as yours. I had it surveyed this past spring since I also was concerned it was coming to the end of its useful life. I had expected the riggers to recommend a complete overhaul, but in fact they only identified a few relatively minor repairs.  Note - my boat has not been raced but sailed regularly on weekends. They also did not do die tests. But they also did not recommend further tests on any suspect fittings.  For about $175 at Hartge's in Galesville MD, I think it was money well spent. I still wonder about how much I can get out of it, but the rigger seem to think it was still generally in good shape and did not warrant full replacement. 

[Stu Jackson]

2010 - 1988 = ???  Do the math.  What's your entire rig worth to you?  I redid our standing rigging when the boat was 14 or 15 years old.  I sleep a lot better.  Do a search on +standing+rigging and read about different prices.  Things change over time, sometimes one source gets less expensive than another.  There is no right answer, it changes.  Shop around.

[Ken Juul]

If I remember correctly the AYBS standards say to replace the standing rigging every 7 years.  I think for the use our boats get, that can easilty be doubled, so 14-15 years is probably a good range.  According to several experts, the lower fittings are normally the ones that fail.  Salt slowly gets in and starts corrosion, water gets in starts corrosion, in colder climates water freezes in the fittings causing deformation leading to corrosion.

At 22 years I'd say you are on borrowed time.  When I did mine, the factory was by far the cheapest source for new rigging.  If you are pulling the stick it is also a good idea to change the sheaves, new ones from Garhauer make a huge difference.

[foobie]

Thanks all! Through her checkered past this boat has been to the Caribbean and back twice and to Canada once so she's seen some use. The two years ago the surveyor didn't notice anything obvious, but he didn't dye test either.  I don't plan on sailing her hard, but don't even want to think about losing a stay.

@Chuck58 - Good advice on the insurance. Will pursue that as well.

Great Board!

Thanks,

Steve 

[Stu Jackson]

I don't plan on sailing her hard, but don't even want to think about losing a stay.

Steve, glad you understand.  But that's not the issue.  "Sailing her hard" is not the issue, since every time you tack you are loading the rig and there's really no "light" vs "hard" sailing.  And there's the fore and back stays as well as the six shrouds, too.

[Ron Hill]

Steve : About 3/4 years ago I had allof the standing rigging change "pin to pin" for a little over $3K.  Was worth it as I observed every swage being made and also changed out the head sail roller furling.  
BTW, I wrote and article on it in the C34 tech section of the Mainsheet!!  
A thought