Rigging Inspections

[Grinna 2]

OK, so when a rigger goes up a mast to do a rigging inspection, what is it that he (or she) is actually looking for?

 

I'm happy to do my own periodic inspections of standing rigging on our boat, but there's no point if I don't know what I'm looking for when I do it. Are there specific danger signs or areas that are prone to failure? How can you tell that everythings OK inside a swage fitting? Looking for obvious stuff like loose bolts/nuts, bent pins, cracks and rust? or are the danger signs more subtle than that? Other than the standing rigging, what else should you be looking at/for?

[Marshy 30]

Its hard to give you a simple list of things to look at, its kinda like a list of servicing your car. Each one is slightly different and for the price of getting a rigger down for a look at $60 or whatever is pretty good piece of mind.

 

The basics they will look for - plus a few more depending on your setup.

 

1) Standing rigging. They will look at all the terminations for any signs of bending, cracking, excessive rust buildups, Fatigued wire, rigging screws not locked off etc. Along with checking each spreader fitting to make sure the wire/rod/ whatever isnt wearing out, or fatiguing. Also a general glance over the rigging itself to check no corrosion or rust etc. And check all split pins etc are ok, no bent clevis pins.

 

2) All gooseneck fittings, vang fittings and basiaclly anything else bolted on. All fastenings still tight with no corrosion between stainless and alloy or carbon.

 

3) Spreaders, mast crane, forestay fittings, sheave boxes etc, mast tapers, check all welds and joins to makesure no movement or cracking of welds etc. No signs of corrosion around any mast tangs.

 

4) Sheaves - Check all sheaves still in good working order, no elongation, bent pins, all locked in and no movement, Check halyards arent chafing on anything etc. All halyard leads the right angles and sheaves fit boxes snuggly.

 

5) Roller Furling gear - No signs of excessive wear, chafing or rubbing between the foils and the stay, no signs of halyard wraps. Halyard deflection the right angle to prevent wraps. Furling unit greased up and moving fine. All fastenings tight and prevented from moving. All foils straight and joiners tight.

 

General rig tune and correct tensions on all stays, Locked off to prevent accidental undoing. All shackles tight on mast, halyard snap shackles working well etc.

 

Plus a few other things that you look for on various boats, depending on what addons it has.

 

There is a pretty comprehensive list here:

http://www.kzmarine.co.nz/images/searig/Rigcheck.pdf

 

Hopefully that helps

Cheers

Marshy