This is the second version of this Fair Leads to be posted here; I wrote the first one in an unhappy moment, angered by yet another case of a boat surveyor's overlooking serious problems with a boat's rig. Given my intensely peeved mood, there wasn't a lot on the positive side in the piece. And while cloyingly chipper Pollyannaism isn't conducive to change, neither is nihilism. So here goes with another version, one that might go a little further towards addressing the problem.

   Boat surveying is an art, and a technically demanding art at that. You have to have detailed knowledge of all of a vessel's systems, plus the depth of experience and innate good sense to appraise the condition and quality of all those systems. A tough art, a demanding art, so it probably comes as no surprise that even the best surveyors might not be consummate masters of analysis for all vessel systems. What I'd like to know is why so few of them seem interested in, let alone informed about, the running and standing rigging, or the masts to which they attach.

   Do I sound a little peeved here? If so, it's because I'm writing this at a straw-that-broke-the-camel's-back moment: we just came back from surveying the rig on yet another vessel whose condition had been assessed by a well-regarded marine surveyor. On too many sailing vessels, surveyors look re-e-eal close at things like propane vents and engine mounts and electrical panels and through-hulls. And you can just bet that they hit every square inch of the hull with that teensy little hammer. All well and good. But time and again they miss things like: corrosion on the mast butt that so intense that the mast is about to get shorter; other corrosion under winch bases that is threatening to cut the mast into two pieces; swages that are so badly cracked that you can see the cracks from a couple of steps away; frozen footblock sheaves; absence of toggles on the jibstay and forestay; and reefing setups that are essentially decorative. And this is just the kind of thig one can find on deck. There might be lots of other glaring flaws aloft, but many surveyors never see them because they don't go aloft. Looking up and squinting for a moment doesn't count. So they won't see things like: cracked spreader bracket bases; fatigue at the masthead where the jibstay attaches; foul leads from the shroud tangs, disintegrating halyard sheaves; elongating rivets; or missing top furler bearings.

   Now I can understand it if a surveyor misses a few of these items, and in something as complex as a modern rig, one would be hard-pressed to catch every little thing. And I'm writing this rant with the full knowledge that lots of things have gotten past my eye. But to miss everything is inexcusable,wrong, and unprofessional. A surveyor who let details of this magnitude and scope escape notice in, say, the engine room, would quickly be out of business.

   I have often said that rigging is the least-understood aspect of sailing; we all grow up more or less conversant with buildings (and a boat is essentially a specialized floating building), as well as engines and electricity. And the essentials of sail physics are intuitively graspable, even though their finer points elude most of us. But rigging is an odd thing for our culture; we are a little weak in knowledge when it comes to tension structures. But golly, time after time we go aboard boats with stacks of serious, life-threatening problems that somehow got overlooked on the survey. One can only speculate how many dismastings or total losses can be traced to rig ignorance, but judging from what we've seen and heard of, it is a significant number. Just picture an endless procession of cruisers, heading into the ocean with tanks topped up, supplies on board, and all systems green except for the standing rigging, which is about to lose some crucial component. And you can be pretty sure that it is a simple, easily replaced, maybe even relatively inexpensive item, that just needs noticing, to avert large trouble.

   Of course, there are quite a few surveyors who are deeply knowledgeable about rigs, who know what to look for, and why. These are people who actually go aloft to inspect the rig, and pay serious attention to everything. And there are other surveyors who at least are aware of their limitations, and unafraid to recommend the attentions of specialists, be it in the rig or the engine room. Such surveyors exist, and as a rule they are miffed at the sloppiness and inattentiveness of their fellows. But they seem to be in the minority.

   How to change this situation? Education, of both sailors and surveyors. We are big on offering classes on how to inspect rigging, and it has made a lot of difference to many of our clients. We will continue to research, document, and share our findings, but we are only one small shop, perched on a corner of the country. So I'm urging surveyor's associations, as well as individual surveyors to do what they can to address this problem, by expanding (or adding) rig surveying to their classes and seminars. As a model, I will mention the good people at Havorn Marine Services in Seattle, who have an excellent series of classes on all aspects of surveying, and who emphasize the significance of rig surveying, right up there with propane vents.

   Sailors can do a lot to improve things, starting with educating themselves. Books and tapes are a good start, but nothing beats hands-on. So how about arranging for seminars through the yacht club or cruising association. If you take classes at a boat school, like the WoodenBoat School in Brooklin, Maine, maybe you can help talk management into scheduling a class.

   Next month: Things That Can Go Wrong: Part II

   Fair leads,

      Brion Toss