Rig. What to check, what to change, and when to do it – Part 1

The mast and its equipment, in a word the rig, must constantly be checked and material replacements should be made over time. Danilo Fabbroni*, one of the most experienced riggers guides you step by step so as not to have any surprises

The whole truth about the rig

Ihe topic of maintenance and related periodic checklist that allows one to keep if not in perfect at least in “bearable” condition an artifact such as the house, the car and not least, the boat, becomes topical especially in the winter months. Because it is assumed that the boat is at rest most of the time during this period. In the case of the automobile, the contours of the problem are at least seemingly clear, especially when we consider the latest generation of automobiles that signal, through the usual infernal apps, when and how maintenance should be done nailing the poor user-owner to his or her unbreakable responsibilities of the “good maintainer”!

The user willingly bends to the automaker’s reminders in doing check coupons at the due time, if only because oftentimes this is also to maintain the warranty on the car. In the case of a purchase on the used car market, the matter becomes a bit more complicated, so much so that it is not uncommon to witness a higher valuation for a car that can make an informed case that it has been serviced properly in the past, and all the more so if done by authorized service centers, if not even by dealers of the car’s make.

Why is there a need for maintenance? Obviously, even a basic artifact like a hut needs maintenance, otherwise it would fall apart in a short time. So, the answer is simple: maintenance is the necessary condition for a “something” to last as long as possible over time and-not just “perform,” behave in a way that fulfills its function. For a boat the function is to take us here and there for pleasure, since that is the definition of yachting, sic et simpliciter.

Rig: maintenance and refit, best to do it

So from our side the position is clear: either maintenance or decay, the third way is not given. To get out of the metaphor, we will cite an event that happened very few years ago and, unfortunately, is not an isolated incident: a former 14-meter racing boat with thirty-odd years on its back of esteemed activity between racing youth and mid-to-late cruising age-although very sporty-loses its mast despite the fact that both the mast and the rigging had recently been overhauled. Indeed, the rigging had been changed several times over the decades. The loss of the 14-meter mast was due to the fact that the deck heath sheared off without giving any warning, despite the fact that, mind you, the yacht’s construction was done by a primary shipyard to the design of a then prominent naval architect.

The same fate befell, more recently, a half-ton belonging to the glorious IOR tonnage era for the exact same reason. Now what could (or should) be more solid and durable than a heath that is, after all, a massive plate most often made of 316 stainless steel? The problem is precisely this: the more we take it for granted that a part is solid and durable forever, the more we risk: the not uncommon sequence of accidents of boats that have been lost at sea due to the bulb detaching from the hull speaks volumes on this issue. If I bought a boat with decades and decades of existence on its shoulders, I would never do it if I did not have the means to have her bulb, rudder and heaths removed, whatever it costs, in order to check everything dovially.

The rig. What is it?

On the other hand, this scenario is a borderline, extreme scenario: fortunately, not everyone goes hunting for “historical” memorabilia. So the second question that arises is, “how should I deal with a mediately used or even very little used boat or better, a brand new boat?” Let us try to look at the matter step by step, hand by hand together, with the caveat that here we will talk about what concerns the so-called rig, and that is more simply, in straightforward Italian, everything that concerns the rigging of the boat, current and sleeping rigging (halyards, sheets, shrouds, stays, backstays, etc.). as well as, of course, mast, boom, spreaders, jib gybe, whip, bowsprit if any, tangon if it survives!, heaths and outriggers for the few boats that have them (sort of “tangos” put one on each side of the boat to give the rigging a base).

In addition to the rig, our chat is also about the completion of these “pieces” and that is the deck equipment: everything that is more or less “horizontally” on the deck: winches, rails, blocks, hydraulics and whatnot.

Tree, do like Tabarly

Starting with the rig, we start with the tree, of course. A slice of life comes to mind to say, indeed to remember: the times I saw Eric Tabarly himself standing in front of my eyes when I was a boy, in the flesh. He was almost always placed hanging like a monkey in the tree, except for the time I had the honor of shaking his hand on the dock in Auckland, before the departure of the round-the-world leg, on Farr’s beautiful ketch, La Poste!

This is to say that the tree must be seen “up close,” four-eyed as it were, up close at close range, equipped with a bansigo and “visited” from top to bottom. The “simple” inspection tells us a great deal about the state of your mast and what pertains to it: spreaders, moorings and certainly not least, all the rigging and why not of what you see of the halyards, mistresses if any, elevators (lines intended only to send a person up to shore precisely).

Of the rest I am only making the famous hot water discovery: Rod Stephens, the brother of the great Olin Stephens, who had the role of fine-tuning the “house” boats spent an inordinate amount of time on the masts. What to look at when you are up, hanging like monkeys on the banana palm? I would say everything from A to Z, everything “watchable,” do we or do we not want to take care of our “pole” that bears the hard work of carrying the “engine” of our boat on its shoulders and that is the sails? Of course it does!

So it occurs to me that if, for example, we have a battened mainsail rail (and we don’t … the rail is needed and as if it’s needed! even in the case of a not totally battened mainsail …) it’s a “squint” to see whether or not there is one of the almost infinite number of threaded pins holding the rail on the shaft that is not perfectly screwed in! Just one of these caught in défaillance and “Houston we have a problem!” just to give just one trivial example.

We will obviously see how the spreaders stand both at the point of attachment with the mast and at their tops where the rigging passes or stops, depending on the type of rigging. If there are skins, or tape, gray-tape or more sophisticated stuff on the tips of the spreaders it would be exceedingly advisable (even in the case of semi-rigid covers such as pvc or the like) to take everything off (alas!) and put the nose under these “underbellies” to see that no unpleasant things have “matured” (cracks; breaks; fraying and the like).

Tree, the areas to be checked

The rigging attachment (whatever it may be: from galvanized steel cable a la Moitessier all the way up to the exotic fiber rigging of “flying flies” and that is today’s America’s Cups) cannot be missing from the checklist. How can there be no shortage of heath control in all its forms: from the marine bronze plates of wooden masts up to the “non-heaths” in use in carbon masts (here the shrouds are seen “disappearing” within windows in the mast profile).

Needless to say, the masthead area should be reserved for a thorough inspection and while we are at it halyard entries & exits should be inspected especially to see that they are not “eaten” at their ends (which is very common for those who have used or still use steel-textile mixed halyards; this is due to misalignment between halyard exit and deck deflection…).

The mast of course should also be checked from “the ground” and that is both from the deck and from below-deck: very important mast base to check! Corrosion is likely here for an aluminum shaft since (in the case of a through-shaft) the bilge with its seawater miasmas never experiences a hygienically good situation. If the boat is large and has the mast-jack i.e., the cylinder that is used to tension the rigging, it is a good idea to look at the holes and/or the attachment of the cylinder on the mast as this is an area that strains considerably whenever the rigging precisely is put under tension.

Again in the case of a through mast, see well what is under the mast coaming and do not forget the tie-rods, the “chokers” that prevent the deck in the coaming area from rising under the load of the halyards.

Since one is on the mast, one must not neglect the electricity and that is the cables that carry the necessary signals to way lights, spreader lights, anchor lights, possible radar and anything else pertinent from below deck all the way to the masthead (instrumentation all).

Who does the work?

Who does what I have just described? This inspection can very well be done by one of the crew, even on an amateur basis if equipped with sufficient specific experience and knowledge of the danger. So eyes and legs when going to the tree! Otherwise, one can rely on a rigger (to be reminded that for years there has been national legislation that one must comply with in order to ascend at height, which is triggered even at a few man distances from the deck and therefore the presence of a so-called “supervisor” or person with a license for this in addition to the general obligation to wear certified personal safety equipment is mandatory).

Rig, the truth about rigging

When should this inspection be done and how often should it be repeated? Here we get into the rough part of the issue: let’s say right away that if we stood by what the rigging suppliers recommended for example we would be in very bad shape in some ways! The inspection and even replacement routine strongly recommended by the firms is very strict and involves checks as soon after the “birth” of the rigging as much as very frequent replacements of it in toto. This-let it be noted-is in order to be able to provide insurance coverage commensurate with the actual value of the boat. Note that this refers to rigging in exotic fibers, in textiles in simple terms, not in metal and for that in rod, the so-called rod, in Nitronic type steel: the world’s most widely used rigging, the spiroidal rigging (generally in the 19-strand guise but also 49-strand in vintage boats) in AISI 316 steel is all but excluded from these laces and ties.

This last notation sounds more like “mal diffusa mezzo gaudio”: in fact, in the world’s most widespread rigging, we repeat, the spiroidal, which some solonians declared dead when the textile rigging appeared, is precipitated into a “no man’s land” where the most disparate theses apply, from “the rigging should never be changed or it will damage the mast” to “the rigging should be changed at least once a year” through a plethora of intermediate voices between these two extremes. A rule of common sense dictates that the spiroidal rigging of any boat at the turn of the seventh year should be changed, period, if a sufficient amount of good maintenance is to be maintained. To make an exception to the rule, the period could be considered and extended to the tenth year of life, but if so it should really be the last resort in which to change the rigging.

When we say changing the rigging we mean changing it even if nothing has been glimpsed or seen: it just has to be changed, based on an end-of-life reasoning.

It should be considered that almost all of the spiroidal cable on the market comes from large industrial cable firms, mostly from the East, which leads to the fact that the product in general, which should be pointed out, does not have a quality, how should we say? apical. Different for the remaining rigging that is definitely high-end: the rod and textile. Thankfully, the wretches in Italy who smuggled rod using 316 stainless steel instead of the much more valuable Nitronic have disappeared, and so welcome the Nitronic of this or that brand, as long as it is really Nitronic.

In textiles it is more complicated as the field is not vast, it is vast! A good textile flying rigging can also be made for me by a rigger (we are talking about a cruising boat well meaning…) who knows well what double-sheathed or single-sheathed rope to use if I am satisfied with the results (read: good price-quality) but from here on one can instead use products from this or that marine ropemaker designed and made especially for this use until then trespassing on high-tech products such as rigging for example made as much by New Zealand firms as by Swiss firms (surprised?!).

Having said that in our opinion rod rigging should have a longer life than spiroidal rigging if only because Nitronic is a steel that has a very high resistance to corrosion compared to AISI 316 steel (that of spiroidal) and so I would dare say that for rod rigging the bar should be raised and taken to at least 10-12 years, with the understanding, we repeat for the sake of extreme clarity, that the recommendations dictated by the manufacturers far more restrictive and therefore if you want to follow their advice it must be changed much earlier.

I can already hear an objection in the air coming from that boat owner who says, “My boat has been little at sea; almost always ashore or at the dock but moved around in navigation little so these rules don’t apply.” Right and wrong at the same time. The Australian, high-profile firm Ronstan, also with experience in industrial rigging (tensile structures and the like) had disclosed field research demonstrating an aging then a decay of rigging that occurred “simply” on boats mostly lying at the buoy, in bays where a small but constant undertow imprinted the rigging of the boats with the exhilarating practice of wire if you bend a wire once or twice or three times you don’t break it but if you repeat this a hundred times you break it!

Rig, when to intervene

In conclusion, closing also the first part of this article and then continuing with the rest and that is current rigging, halyards, sheets and various rigging as well as cogging and winch, better to be afraid than to knock it: the mast check should be done as early as the first two years of life, better if routinely you do it every year with the procedure described so far.

At the turn of the eighth year on up comes the sore point, the inspection has to be done (unfortunately) by putting the mast on the ground with all that that entails in regard to cost and time and risk (the crane operator not up to the task is always vigilant and sees very well… ! to do damage!) inherent. Same thing at the 16-year mark. Up to this time stage we are on the “recommended” and “strongly recommended” while when we go beyond the 16-plus mark putting down the tree is “mandatory.”

With the mast on land it is a different story of course: the degree of accuracy of inspection is not even close to that of mast in a boat, if only because it is a bit difficult to divide the top of the mast from the bottom while the mast is up! The same goes for the mast foot and masthead, points that unfortunately often hold nasty surprises. If these nasty surprises turn out to be such it is worthwhile to subject the shaft to an investigation with liquid penetrants (special sprays that highlight micro-cracks) in the case of aluminum shafts or ultrasonic investigation (for carbon). Next installment we will see how to do with the rest of the rig and Of rigging.

• In the next installment: Rig. Table of essential interventions and tips

*Who is Danilo Fabbroni, the rig expert.

The author of this article, Danilo Fabbroni, is a sailor who has made “rigging” his successful profession.

He sailed on some of the most important racing boats such as Brava and participated in regattas such as Admiral’s Cup, One Ton Cup, Sardinia Cup, then became a professional rigger. was Harken’s technical support manager and lectured at the Faculty of Naval Engineering at the European Institute of Design. He wrote a nautical best seller, “Rigging.” He loves architecture and is an excellent photographer.