Catalina 350 International Association

Apologies for what might be a very obvious question. I'm currently thinking about how I might replace the 20 year old standing rigging on hull number 55. One of the options is to replace the rigging with the mast up and based on some preliminary reading it doesn't sound like it would be too hard. I could look at pulling the mast if needed but I'd like to work through all the options.

One documented limitation that has confused me is the following:

If the mast has to remain stepped, you need a slightly different approach, generally involving the purchase of each wire over-long with the top terminal swaged.
The bottom end will need to be finished in situ, by cutting to the exact length and fitting a DIY self-fit swageless (mechanical) terminal.

from https://jimmygreen.com/content/162-repl ... step-guide. Is this simply because you won't be able to send the rigging off for duplication and therefore need to be able to make changes in place? I was hoping that the specifications on page 25 of the C350 user guide would allow me to order a complete set of rigging with all terminals professionally swaged. These could then be swapped out one by one with appropriate support from a halyard.

Any thoughts on the above would be very much appreciated.

Alex

Just got a reply from the author of that post who has since updated it to explain that the limitation is indeed due to the need to measure the existing rigging.

So if you had a documented set of specifications you could potentially do this all at once with the mast up with finished rigging from a professional. Question is. Do you trust those specifications?

Alex, there was a post on the C34 message board about this topic. They mentioned that some of the stay/shroud measurements listed in the manual were off by as much as a foot so I wouldn't roll the dice with a project this costly.
What about removing each component, one at a time and use a spare halyard to secure that portion of the mast? Since shrouds are paired and symmetrical the measurements should be the same for the starboard and port components. Obviously the the stays are "one of a kind".

Thanks Ken. Appreciate the thoughts on the value of the owner manual specifications. There are lots of updates applicable from specific hull numbers across multiple pages, so it's very hard to tell which ones would even apply. That's before you consider whether they're accurate.

Given how many trips you'd be taking up the mast I agree that taking them off for measurement one by one would be a good answer. You could either take a long time by sending them off for duplication individually or measure them yourself and put them back after measurement whilst you order the complete set.

At the very least, taking them off for measurement would tell you whether the owners manual is correct or not!

I think this is what was meant. You take off one of each type on opposite sides of the boat, right? Take off the uppers on the port side, and lowers on the starboard side. Take off the back stay too. Secure with extra halyards and topping lift, though on the sides there really is no issue with the mast coming down. It is still supported. Then you take these to a rigger or make them yourself, two copies of each. Reinstall all of these. Once done with all these, then tackle the forestay with the furler on it.

Bill on TRIUMPH

Thanks Bill. Good to get some thoughts on the stability with supporting halyards. I was imagining might want to put them back straight away so would measure them yourself on the dock and send the measurements to a rigger instead of the actual rigging.