Replacing the Standing Rigging. Completion

Completed the Standing Rigging Replacement.

Just about every muscle in my body is aching and I didn't do a fraction of what the Rigger did !!

A quick intro to the Rigger - Dam Rigging, Inc.

Christian ( Chris ) Dam, from Denmark, gave a quote for the job estimating 16-18 hours of work @ $150ph.

We set the work date for March 9th. 2026 starting around 09:30, he arrived on time. Just a quick note here: "HE ARRIVED ON TIME". This is South Florida - that's unusual in two ways - #1 He turned up, @2 He turned up on time!  Good start.

By the time Chris had arrived, I had laid out all of the new standing rigging cables and connectors etc. All by the new Forestay as Chris had initially intended to do the Forestay on Day 2.

After a quick review of the work, Chris got his gear together including his climbing gear  -  that's a 4:1 purchase block and tackle that he used to climb the mast almost unassisted. Neat bit of kit. It had a jamb cleat on the lower block so he could hoist himself up the mast unaided. To climb down - more like just lower himself down - he just held the line out of the jamb cleat and eased it out as he quickly, but controlled, descended. 

Nice setup.

He soon had the lower shrouds on the dock and measured the old and new shrouds. After making up the new Shrouds to length, Chris was back up the mast and installing them.

That's how the day went: Secure the mast in order to remove one or more shrouds, measure up, make up and then install. Despite it being the 2nd week of March, it was hot enough to have us both sweating. 

Then it was time to work on the Forestay with the Furler. This is the longest stay and the most challenging but it was obvious that Chris had done this many times. It really went very smoothly. I was surprised that we got all of the Shrouds and the Forestay completed and was able to wrap up for the day by 5pm. I helped as much as I could but Chris did most of the work.

Tuesday, start was at 10am, time to work on the back stay. 1st snag. Our backstay has the Delta Plate ( the triangular plate where the split backstay bridle joins the main backstay that connects to the mast head) is about 6" above the Bimini and the bridle wires pass through a gap in our two aft solar panels. Well, the new Backstay seems to be for an adjustable backstay, the Delta Plate is about 8' higher and so the bridle cables are much further apart. The old backstay bridle was 6" wide at the Bimini, the new is 33" !!! In order to install the backstay I needed to remove the two aft solar panels. While I did that, Chris worked on preparing the rigging for tuning. Once the solar panels were out of the way, I made a hole in the Bimini canvas where the new backstay bridles would pass and we completed the install. Chris had his Loose Gauges out and diligently went around the boat adjusting the rigging.  We were done.

Everything was wrapped up by 4pm, so a total of 14 hours. Chris originally quoted 14 - 18 hours but I guess my help cut some of that.

Total cost of the work, new spreader boots and travel time came to $2,400.40. The stress of someone that knows what they are doing and able to work around the issues that most likely happen on every boat, all made sense and I slept really well that night.

Catalina Direct for the Rigging supplies: $3,824.95  - Catalinadirect.com

Dam Rigging Inc. for the installation: $2,400.40      - damrigging.com

Total cost $6,225.35 Plus sandwich lunches for two for two days.

Value: ENORMOUS ! Pease of mind - invaluable.

To continue, I'm going to reorganize the Solar Panel install. probably going to replace the 3 x 200Watt panels with 2 x 300+ panels, perhaps a total of 800 wats. I have to measure the area available over the Bimini, it's going to be just two panels, one in front of the Backstay bridle and one astern of the bridle.

I'll have to do a significant rework of the Bimini canvas, it's due! Move that job up the priority list.

We could take the boat out right now, bit of a make shift condition, but should be done in a couple of weeks. But hopefully we'll see you on the water.

Paul