Rigbos fall running rigging checklist.

Rigbos running rigging check list.

It is unfortunately getting close to the end of our sailing season for most of us.  This usual means sailing in a lot more breeze for the last few sails and then winterizing our boats.  So not a bad time to check you running rigging while it is still warm enough to comfortably to do so.  I have decided to put together a check list of what to look for.  Any comments of things that I may have missed would be help for to others.  Remember cordage is not forever and chafe, ware, UV light, mildew, mold and age take toll.  It best to find you problem now and replace if necessary before you have failures.  Because, as you know Neptune always finds the worst time for these failures to happen.

So, here goes.  I found best check your lines systematically one by one keeping notes forces you to do a thorough job.  Sheets and control lines being easiest as you can get at them more easily as they are not aloft. Halyards apart from begin aloft, 40% of them are inside the mast and can’t be seen.  So, attach the bitter end of the halyard to the halyard shackle and that way you can run the halyard up and down checking it all the way.  Running the line through your fingers can help you feel what your eyes don’t see.  So, what to check for?

• Chafe and ware are the most destructive. The usual bad areas are the top few feet of the halyards where they exit at the mastheads sheaves when sail is hoisted and you sailing.  When the sail is not hoisted and halyards left too loose it can also cause chafe at sheave boxes and at spreaders, if stowed against the mast. Replace the halyard if the chafing is though the cover to the core.
• The worst chafe can often be found aware the lines sit in the clutch stoppers when sailing. With double braid ropes, the line cover gets the load where the clutch stopper cams seize the line when is taken off the winch.  It point loads on a small aera.  Sometimes crew unwittingly try to drop the sails without first taking up the halyard on the winch to get the load off the clutch cam, before opening the clutch at full load.  Doing this will eventually chafe the through cover of most any line. Once use you notice the cover is starting to ware starting to ware thru’ do not wait too long before replacing it.  They can fail all around the core, bunching up and getting stuck in the jammer with the sail half up and down.
• Check that the splices at the halyard shackle.
• Check your halyards shackle. I often find bent shackle pins if they were undersized or have been abused by over hoisting.   Occasionally I find cracks in snap shackles and the hinged joint. These cracks are hard to find unless you deliberately looking for them.  Replace as needed.
• The UV light slowly kills the lines covers. If you scrape the covers with you finger nail and if you get a lot of dead dry fibers faking on to your nail this is an indication it is time to perhaps replace.
• Mildew and mold also reduce the life span of halyards. If boat is a dock where mildew is a problem you may want to remove your halyard mousing in a messenger line.  Then wash in a bucket with some mild (well diluted) laundry detergent.  Rinse and soak them in some fabric softener for a few hours.
• For the racers, if you have high tech lines which have been tapered (covers stripped) and the core is exposed to the UV light, the life span of the line is reduced. Most rope manufactures do put these 12 plaited cores some sort of solution coating (often urethane) during production to help protect against UV derogation. UHMPE (Dyneema / Spectra) does better than Vectran, Technora and PBO in the UV light.  One way of trying to gauge to state of the condition of the core is by concertinaing the core together by push it together with your fingertips so you can get a peek inside the lay.  Look at the inside.  If the fibered look old, dry and fractured it is time to replace the line.
• Lines like everything cordage does have a life span and it hard to put a life span in years on it.  Depending on how much you sail, if you line have made it 7-8 years it has done well.
• Ideally once the boat is wintered, some folk mouse out the halyards with massager lines and stow the below to get them out the sun. However, very few people do this. 
• Once the sails off.  Stow the sheets below, ideally washing, fabric softening, rinsing and dying them first.  Attach the main halyard to back of the   boom next to the Topping lift so it is not clunking against the mast all winter.  Wind the genoa halyard around the furling gear foils and pull halyard sight so it does not slap all winter.  Apart from saving your lines you won’t have your boat neighbors wining at you about the noise.
• Take all the rest of the forward halyards (Spinnaker halyard, spare jib halyard, staysail halyards, etc.) to the bow cleats and pulpit, tighten so they are not slapping the mast the spreaders all winter, wearing our out. If you shrink wrap get this done before they, do it.

If you need pricing on replacement lines request a quote at  https://bosun.mfs.gg/zwHqbJh or shop online at Rigbos.com

David van der Spuy