Check Up from the Deck Up
Most boat surveys start below the waterline and work their way up to the deck. On a sailboat, one of the most expensive…and most safety critical…systems is standing over your head.
Standing rigging, terminals, chainplates, furlers, tangs, spreaders, mast fittings, sheaves, rod heads, swages, toggles and pins are just some of the terms for the items that are part of or help support that structure aloft, the sailboat’s rigging. Many of these items can look perfectly serviceable from the deck while telling a very different story up close.
That is why we say…check up from the deck up.
A Good Surveyor Knows a Lot…A Rigger Knows the Rig
A good marine surveyor knows a tremendous amount about a boat. Hulls, systems, electrical, plumbing, machinery, moisture, safety equipment…the list is long. Sailboat rigging is its own specialty though, much the same way engines, electrical systems and composite structures become specialties.
Many surveyors include the mast and rigging in their inspection, and some do a very good job of it. But there is a point where the smartest thing a surveyor can do is bring in the person who spends his life looking at masts and rigging.
Why the Rig Gets Its Own Inspection
The rig is structural. It is loaded every time the boat sails, and much of it lives outside in salt, sun, rain, vibration and constant cyclic loading. Worse yet…many of the parts we care about most are fifty, sixty or eighty feet above the deck.
A cracked swage, elongated clevis pin hole, corroded tang, loose spreader fitting, damaged furler component or tired rod head may not announce itself from the cockpit. Sometimes the first obvious symptom is the one nobody wants.
If you want the nuts and bolts version, we have an older but still useful checklist here: Inspecting Your Mast and Rigging.
From Baltimore to St. Thomas…
This part of the story goes back farther than our Virgin Islands shop.
Back in 2015, U.S. Coast Guard Sector Baltimore invited The Rigging Company to participate in its Small Passenger Vessel Industry Day as a rigging resource. We were asked to help discuss sailboat rigging, inspection issues and common failure points…and even to bring examples of components that commonly fail so the group could put hands and eyes on the real thing.
That made sense to us. Inspectors know vessels and regulations. Riggers know rigging. Put the two together and everyone gets smarter.
Years later, after opening our St. Thomas operation, that experience became especially relevant. There are Coast Guard inspected passenger sailing vessels throughout the Virgin Islands, and the sailboat side of those vessels presents some very specialized questions.
TRC has been called on to inspect rigs, document condition, identify deficiencies, explain what we are seeing and perform corrective rigging work when required…
…occasionally, the whole thing gets a little funny.
“What exactly are you reading?” …the iPad turned around…and there was The Rigging Company website. “I wrote that article.”
Jimmie Cockerill
During one Coast Guard meeting in St. Thomas, as the heads of the U.S.C.G. were qualifying this new rigging outfit for the duty of being the “go-to” resource for U.S.C.G. regulated sailing vessels, Jimmie found himself answering a steady stream of technical rigging questions while one of the officials kept referencing an iPad. Eventually he had to ask what the guy was reading.
He turned the screen around…
It was one of our own articles.
That is about as full circle as it gets.
Age Matters…But Age Is Not an Inspection
One of the most common questions we get is some version of, “The rigging is X years old…does it need to be replaced?”
Age matters. Absolutely, and it’s the most common reason that standing rigging requires replacement or service. But age alone does not tell the whole story.
Where was the boat sailed? Was it chartered? Was it sitting in tropical salt for years? Has the mast ever been out? Was the boat hit by a hurricane, or massive storm? Was the vessel ever experiences any sort of traumatic incident, a hard grounding? Is the rig wire, rod or synthetic? What terminals were used? Were they installed correctly? Is there crevice corrosion hiding at the lower swages? Have the chainplates leaked? Has the mast been tuned properly? Has the furler been wrapping halyards around the headstay?
Two rigs of the same age can have completely different stories.
Wire…Rod…Synthetic
The material matters too. Wire standing rigging, rod and synthetic systems fail differently and they are inspected differently.
If you want to get nerdy with us, start with Wire Rigging Vs. Synthetic Rigging Vs. Rod Rigging. Rod owners should also read our dedicated Rod Rigging article.
And after repairs or replacement…inspection without proper tune is only half the job. We have a primer on How to Tune a Sailboat Mast too.
If You Need a Little Visual Motivation…
This old Yachting Monthly test deliberately weakens the standing rigging attachment until the mast finally comes down. It is dramatic…and it makes a wonderfully boring rigging point very clearly.
Small parts matter.
So…When Should You Have the Rig Looked At?
Definitely before a purchase if the general survey leaves questions. Before an offshore passage or major race. After a grounding, collision, dismasting scare or significant storm event. When an insurer asks for it. When the boat’s history is fuzzy. When the rig is aging. When something simply does not look right.
And frankly…periodically even when nothing seems wrong.
A proper inspection starts at deck level and, when safe to do so, continues aloft. We look at the rig as a system…not a collection of shiny stainless steel parts. Loads travel from sails to spars, terminals, stays, chainplates and hull structure. One oddity can be the clue that points to another.
If you are curious about how we safely get up there, read Going Aloft Like the Pros. It is one of those subjects where a little knowledge is useful…and overconfidence is not.
The Point of All This…
A surveyor and a rigger should not be competing with each other. The best outcome is when the right expert gets brought in for the right system.
If the question is hull moisture…call the surveyor. If the question is a diesel…call the engine guy. If the question is whether that headstay, rod head, tang, spreader, furler, terminal or mast fitting is something you should trust offshore…
Well…that is where we come in.
The Rigging Company serves Annapolis, Maryland, St. Thomas, Virgin Islands, and beyond! If you have a rigging inspection question, an insurance requirement, a pre-purchase concern, or you simply want another set of experienced eyes on the rig…drop us a line.
~TRC
