SailNet is a forum community dedicated to Sailing enthusiasts. Come join the discussion about sailing, modifications, classifieds, troubleshooting, repairs, reviews, maintenance, and more!

increasing and consolidating standing rigging size

8006 Views 17 Replies 14 Participants Last post by blt2ski, Feb 20, 2015

bristol299bob

Discussion Starter · Feb 13, 2015

My boat has a mix of standing rigging, lower shrouds (two on each side) are 3/16" wire. The rest are 7/32". I have Sta-Lok fittings all around.

I am doing more and more ocean sailing and would like to go up a wire size (seems like a good idea and would probably ease my mind a bit when the going gets rough). Up one wire size would mean going to 7/32" on the lowers and 1/4" on everything else.

But I'm wondering if it would be wise (and OK) to go up to 1/4" all around. That would be going up *2 sizes* on the 4 lowers and up one size on the rest. This way all of my standing rigging would be the same diameter wire and it would simplify my spares quite a bit. (both wire and fittings).

However I understand that going up *too* much can overstress the boat fittings. is going up to 1/4" on the lowers too much in this case?

Save

1 - 1 of 18 Posts

rbyham

· #11 · Feb 15, 2015

I have a related question. How does one know that the 35 year old boat he just bought is rigged as per original or designed wire size? If history of rig is unknown do we just assume that what is on there is the right size? Or is there some database or formula to determine original rigging size? Boat in question is a 1978 Bombay pilothouse 31.

Save

1 - 1 of 18 Posts

This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.

Top Contributors this Month