Standing rigging: Swagged vs Mechanical fittings

[Crazer]

I am pricing out the replacement of our standing rigging and I have found that it would be cheaper to have the fittings swagged by a rigger than it would be for me to install mechanical fittings myself. BUT I have heard that mechanical fittings are stronger and for me, stronger usually wins. Would anyone care to comment on the difference in strength between the two?

[Cruiser2B]

I went with mechanical fittings. Because I am doing it myself obviously mechanical was used. when figuring out pricing, I only spent about $300-350 on mechanical sta-lok over swage fittings. By the time you buy the swage and then pay to have it done , you are only saving about 20-25 per connection. I purchased from Rigging Only. They were the best priced and customer service was great. I would highly recommend them. I purchased all new turnbuckles, wire and sta-locs and a new windex. the total was 1600 with shipping. This was to rerig an Alberg 30. I upsized the wire on the lowers too which added a bit to the price.

The sta-lok fittings are quite easy to do. Last weekend i built all four lowers in about 2 hrs. i am hoping to get uppers done this week. one word of caution is when putting sta-locs together make sure you have some sort of thread lube on threads. i assemble them dry as per instructions and one of the fittings gualded together....Rigging Only took care of me on that too!

Overall I am very happy I went this way as it will allow me to inspect, replace and repair my rigging if need be. wjen its time to replace the wire, I will only have to purchase the wire and wegdes, which was the cheapest part of the deal at only $400

Jason

[Hulukupu]

Practical sailor recommended swage fittings at the tops (lighter, smaller, so less windage and lower cost) combined with mechanical Sta-loks on the bottoms. I like having the mechanical fitting on the lower end because that is where I see salt spray accumulating and its the first place where rust reveals itself. The ability to take apart the mechanical fittings and clean them (or replace them) yourself is useful (making sure you use a new cone).
That said, I did have one mechanical fitting fail on me (not a Sta-lok). It appears that I simply hadn't completed the installation correctly. I'd already done a dozen others over the course of a year without problems and thought I knew what I was doing. It was a good reality check that I was taking responsibility for the strength of major components of the boat's rigging. It might be easier to use all swage-fittings and simply trust someone else. I try to test my running rigging periodically. If one of my mechanical fittings ever fails under load, I'll reevaluate. For now (two years with new fittings) all seem strong.

[Crazer]

Thanks for the responses. That answers another question I had, which is whether you can disassemble the mechanical fittings once they were installed. I read another article that recommended swage fittings at the top and mechanical at the bottom. How much of a difference in weight and windage would it really make?

[bigd14]

I went with swages on top and Hayn Hi-Mods on the bottom since I changed the chainplates around and the lengths changed too. So far so good but not much stress on the rigging as of yet. They were very easy to install.

Doug