Check your rigging !!!

Here’s a really good reason to pull your mast out and check your rigging over before we really get summer sailing going.
Recently we have had a couple of mast issues, mainly around the standing rigging.
After the loss of a mast due to a shroud failure in Sydney, we have had the insurance angle brought home to us with a decline to pay out, due to age of rigging. A number of insurers will not pay out if your rigging is over 7 years old. This becomes an expensive exercise to replace a lost mast.
Just this week we have had a broken lower shroud in Melbourne, happily not resulting in a broken mast. Upon replacing the shroud it was found that the other lower was also on the verge of breaking – That’s the pic above.
The message in this pic is very clear and this T Ball fitting was on the verge of potentially losing another mast.
So now is a really good time to check your rigging and replace it if it is over 7 years old.

Simon