Question about

[Summer]

We have a 1982 Bristol 35.5 - ours for just over a year now.

Trying to measure our rigging with a Loos Tension Gauge model B rated up to 9/32. We cannot fit the gauge on our upper standing rigging wires, which we believed to be 9/32. When measured with a caliper, the uppers measured .290 (which is about 19/64? is that even possible?). The lowers measured accurately at .250.

Questions -

Is it possible our upper rigging is a different size than we thought, or is it possible it somehow swelled with age/ needs replacing?

How do we find out what the appropriate wire size is for our boat? We are wondering if perhaps the uppers are oversized?


Any insight/information/suggestions are much appreciated!!

[Stumble]

The original specs for a Bristol 35.5 was 5/16 stainless 7x19 wire rigging according to my sources. What you actually have is anyone's guess, but if the sizes don't work very well in standard try remeasuring in metric, someone may have converted over at some point in the boats life. 5/16 would normally be replaced with 8mm btw.

If you don't kow the age of this stuff it may be worth having it dye tested to check for crevice corrosion at the terminals. While it is possible for the wire itself to go bad, nine times out of ten it is the fittings that fail, not the wire itself.

Check out http://www.energy-tech.com/article.cfm?id=26553 for more information on dye testing. Not that it's full proof, but it should give a very good indication of the reliability of the remaining fittings.


If you do need to replace it, that is a whole different story. Most manufacturers of rigging recommend a 8 year service life untill dye testing needs to be performed every year. Now in practice most people don't follow these recomendations, but it is something to keep in mind.

[Summer]

Thanks for the info. Can I ask what your sources are? We're always struggling to find specs/info on our boat. The only things on our boat 5/16 are the backstay and forestay. Lowers are 1/4 and uppers are the mystery. Maybe they are mm.

Yeah, our rigging is probably done.

[Stumble]

In this case it was a copy of Twenty Affordable Sailboats to Take You Anywhere*By Gregg Nestor. You can buy it Tom Amazon for about $15, or Read it on google books. The Bristol 35.5 starts starts on page 41.

The following link might work, but I haven't had a lot of luck linking to google books.


http://books.google.com/books?id=vEc...%2035.5&f=true

[Summer]

Thanks again - link worked great! Clearly ALL our rigging has been replaced (and we are realizing it's probably much older than the 6 yrs we were led to believe it is now). Research seems to indicate that going back to all 5/16 7x19 is not a good choice...

SO the big question remains - What size(s) and kind *should* we go with, as we pretty much decided it all needs replacing (except for the forestay, which is new w/ furling - it's 5/16 1 x19 ).

[Stumble]

I am partial to Dynex Dux. It will cost about the same as wire the first time, but the fittings are reusable. Like I said it is about the same cost, but weighs about 1/7 what steel does. Plus if you learn to splice replacing it is just the cost of line (though expensive line to be sure).