When I mentioned to the boatyard (very experienced people, they have sailed from Japan to Antarctica via Patagonia) that i am concerned about my (probably ) 40 year old stainless standing rigging, they looked it over and said, No problem . Its fine.
When I told them that in Australia standing rigging is changed every 10 years , they couldn't believe it. Actually, they sniggered and said that's what you get from using Chinese stainless. Japanese are always ready to give it to the Chinese.

In this vid , Eric changes over his 20 year old shrouds and back stay.
Oh. and dose a solo delivery in 40 to 50 knots/ Too bad about the owners foresail.

Gary

Hey Gary, pretty sure you would be following Erik on his journey to greenland....for those not... thought Id share his post from today. Erik has been posting some amazing photos of his journey. Must be a journey of a life time. His motto is no bulls??t just sailing and his comments are completely in line. Cant wait till the film comes out.

Some beautiful scenery...amazing the inland routes to take...if only we had a coastline like this....

The only thing I wish... Is for Erik to stop and talk to a few of the locals to get a bit of history of these far away and unique places.

I agree 100% simmrr
Something like Roger posts would be interesting.
And it's not Bullsh#t.
gary

Select to expand quote

garymalmgren said..
When I mentioned to the boatyard (very experienced people, they have sailed from Japan to Antarctica via Patagonia) that i am concerned about my (probably ) 40 year old stainless standing rigging, they looked it over and said, No problem . Its fine.
When I told them that in Australia standing rigging is changed every 10 years , they couldn't believe it. Actually, they sniggered and said that's what you get from using Chinese stainless. Japanese are always ready to give it to the Chinese.

In this vid , Eric changes over his 20 year old shrouds and back stay.
Oh. and dose a solo delivery in 40 to 50 knots/ Too bad about the owners foresail.

Gary

With respect to your boatyard and acknowledging I have next to no rigging experience (I am looking for a boat), I do have some engineering experience and I have to disagree.

You can't tell how good stainless is by looking at it. You can see if it is bad. Stainless is subject to a variety of corrosion such as crevice corrosion, pitting corrosion, stress corrosion cracking and galvanic corrosion. Most relevant to rigging would be crevice corrosion and stress corrosion (and stress fatigue fractures)

With rigging you can't see the corrosion in the swage until a strand breaks. That's the most likely failure point. The other points of attachment such as chain-plates, and mast tangs could have stress cracks or be weakened by crevice corrosion which can't be seen by the naked eye until it can.

There are many reports of rigging failure without visible indications beforehand. In many case this might be because the rigging was not inspected carefully enough but there still would be many cases where it wasn't able to be detected.

Of course 95% of boats with old rigging with superior steel will be fine. 40 years is getting to the high point of the risk curve.

I'm looking for boats in Australia at the moment. I expect to replace the rigging for insurance purposes and also piece of mind. At a minimum I will replace all wire rigging, and at the very least use crack penetrate die to check chain-plates and tangs for cracks. My preference would be to strip the mast and replace all stainless fittings.

Part 5

Superb production values again. The drone videos have changed everything! He certainly likes to make his offshore sailing difficult. A stackpack, winches on the cabin top in easy reach from the cockpit and at least the primary winches self tailing would make life easier. A grab bar ahead of the wheel to hold onto while getting back behind the wheel in heavy conditions is one of the first things going on my new boat.
Has he made any comments about the water generator ability to supply power? In light of the recent info from Jimmy Cornell on the poor performance from his set up I'm curious.