installing new rod rigging

[infinitysail]

It's time for me to change the rod on our 40 ft sailboat. The difficulty is that we are in Central America, where there are no places that do rod or really any riggers that I trust.

I have a quote from a company in the USA that says they can make the stays and ship them down to me. They will put new k200 tangs on the stays, since they are captive. I will measure the lengths and spreader bend locations and angles for them.

I plan on installing the new stays with the rig up. It is keel stepped, so I think this is reasonable using some lines as temporary stays. Obviously, you do one at a time. As I understand it, I just need to use a blowtorch to melt the loctite, remove the old tang and put the new tang in with some new loctite and fasteners.

The new forestay will be wire, as I don't want to disasssemble my furler foil (Harken MK1 unit 2). I will drop it and run the new wire on the dock, using a norseman stud at the bottom. The rod locking collar from the old forestay should work with the norseman fitting, I believe. It looks to be a 5/8 stud.

Does this sound crazy, or does it sound within reason? Are the any other considerations I am overlooking?

Thanks for the advice.

[Joe Henderson]

Dear Infinitysail,

First of all, why is it time to change your rods? Do you really need to do it now, and in such a place!

Second, changing oldish rods is an intricate job, not to be undertaken lightly, especialy with the mast up.

If the time has really come, then you should probably take the mast out and do the job thoroughly, there may be hidden horrors to discover!

And, if you remove the mast, you can send the whole set of rods, complete with tangs etc to be sorted in the States. Whoever does it can re-use tangs and/or turnbuckles where appropriate, and you will probably get a better and more accurate job.

Regards,

Joe.

[infinitysail]

The rigging is 23 yrs old and shows a little rust at the bottom terminals. I think it is time to change it. I want to take the boat back to the US, but I am nervous about doing it on the original rigging.

I would agree that it would be nice to remove the mast and send the rigging back to the states to get it more accurately replaced. That would cost me about $2k or more here, which makes me want to try to do it in place. Reusing tangs or turnbuckles will not save me much, either. It seems to me that removing and putting in new K200 tangs is a pretty easy job, but I just wanted to be sure.

One followup question: Navtec sells a C550 rod turnbuckle and the N690 rod turnbuckle for half the price. Is there any reason to go with the C550 for ~$600 more on the job?

[Joe Henderson]

Mate,

Yes it's time!

Good luck with the change over. Temporary stays and halyards out to strong points on the sheer will suffice if you really don't want to take the mast out.

Make sure you ask a LOT of questions on here as you go along. Someone will always have the answer.

Do you have discontinuous rods or tip cups?

I would go with the N690s, much cheaper.

Joe.

[infinitysail]

Thanks for the quick responses, Joe.

Rod is all continuous with spreader bends. I measured from the middle of the bend to the bearing surface of the stemball adapter cup inside the k200 tangs. I also measured overall length. I finally measured the bend angle with a t square and some rusty high school math. I will probably remeasure one more time on the other side of the rig to double check everything.

One more question: Navtec has aluminum and stainless spreader bends. Are the stainless ones significantly better?

Thanks,
Frank

[Joe Henderson]

Frank,

The stainless bends are not significantly better. It's just that the alloy ones are cheaper and lighter.

I would go with stainless bends and get the rigger to just leave them loose on the rod, then you can bend them inplace and match the old rods and get the pre-existing rod curve in the right plane.


Joe.

[Brion Toss]

Hi,
Okay, maybe not worth freight back and forth, but the mast could come out just because, if the rod is weary, other things likely are, too. This is a great opportunity to deal with corrosion, fatigue, dents, fasteners, wiring, and all the other likely culprits, with the mast nice and safe at waist level. Yes, it is possible to do the whole thing in place, but I wouldn't even consider it, if I were doing the job.
Sounds like you are getting good measurements, but as Joe notes, you might want to wait to locate those noodles. For instance, are the lower spreaders angled up higher than the upper spreaders? If not, you would be cloning a mistake. Got pictures?
Fair leads,
Brion Toss

PS,
Joe, you coming to Sydney on the 13th?

[Joe Henderson]

Brion,

I will be there with balls on!

Joe.

[infinitysail]

Here is a shot from behind. The spreaders mount on heavy stainless bars that pass through the mast and have the angle already built into them. I think adjusting the angle would be difficult.

Rig is built by sparcraft. Boat is a J/40 built by TPI. I measured both sides. Spreader bends were in the same location side to side. Port side shrouds were about 3/4" longer than starboard. I calculated the bends to be 6.4 degrees for upper spreader and 13.2 degrees for lower. What is the method for putting in your own bend?

Boat is a 1990, but spent 15 years in fresh water, so the mast is in great shape. We can pull the mast in the US, but down here it is expensive, difficult and possibly risky. I want to avoid doing this unless absolutely necessary.

[Brion Toss]

Hi again,
Angles are adequate. Put in the bend by putting the shroud in the spreader tip, and tightening. The time in fresh water and mild climate is something of a clock-stopper. I understand the difficulty of pulling the stick there, but note that switching in place is also risky. Why am I writing this like a telegram?
Have you disassembled any turnbuckles to examine rod ends? You will need a scrubby pad, and ideally some form of magnification and/or a camera capable of extreme close-ups, so you can send pictures. Where I am going here is we might be able to give a long-distance, heavily-qualified blessing to the rig for the trip home. There are microscopes that clip onto iPhones now...
Fair leads,
Brion Toss