Spare the Rod, Spoil the Boat

Position: 28°27’59.8″N 16°14’38.2″W

“I like work: it fascinates me. I can sit and look at it for hours..” – Jerome K. Jerome, Three Men in a Boat

Two years ago we had Aleta re-rigged in Gothenburg, Sweden. As a Valiant 42 she was launched with rod rigging. Rod rigging was all the rage back in the early 2000s. It is very strong for its light weight and was the preferred rigging for racing boats, whose success is based on shaving every extra gram from the boat. Aleta is a performance cruiser, not a racing boat, so the rod rigging was an upgrade, not a necessity. The original Valiant 40 (on which Aleta is based) was shipped with swaged rigging. Swaging is a machine tool crimping process carried out to attach wire rope and end fittings (screws and things so you can attach the cables to the boat and adjust them as necessary). Rather than rods of steel, swaged rigging relies on wire rope familiar to ski lift riders and bridge builders.

Wired

By the mid-2010s the continued consolidation of the sailing industry meant highly spec’d stainless steel rod rigging was made by only a couple of companies in the world. That makes it expensive and difficult to come by. Lead times are long. The problem with rod rigging is it fails catastrophically and without warning. Short of x-raying the rod, there is no way to tell if it will come apart or not. Age and distance are the best indicators of impending failure. When we bought Aleta, we had her completely re-rigged with new rod. Eight years, 20,000 miles and one failed shroud later we figured it was time to replace the rigging again, this time with swaged wire rope rigging. But not just any old wire rope. This time we bought Dyform (compacted strand wire). Slightly heavier than rod rigging, Dyform is a tad stronger with similarly low stretch. It was about half the cost of rod, too. Plus, you can get swaged rigging serviced almost anywhere sailboats cruise.

Bolt Cutters

These days racing boats often use Dyneema for rigging. Dyneema is a synthetic fibre that is 15 times stronger than steel yet floats on water. It is also very lightweight and doesn’t stretch – characteristics racers adore. People have rigged Valiants with Dyneema. But, the idea that you can cut your rigging away with a penknife makes me nervous. I like the idea that Aleta’s rigging might survive a raking with barshot. Besides, what would we do with our bolt cutters? Swap them for a pair of scissors? I think not. We are not Luddites, but neither are we early adopters.

Get the Lead Out

Speaking of adopting new technology. Aleta is in the throes of an electrical makeover. Her batteries are now eight years old and need replacing. Back when we last replaced them, just after we bought Aleta, there was a brief discussion about changing our trusty AGM (Absorbent Glass Mat) batteries for fancy new Lithium-Ion ones. Given the entire electrical system was built around tried-and-true Lead Acid technology, and Lithiums were still very expensive, it made sense to swap the old AGM batteries one for one. Eight years on, Lithium tech has dropped in price and the time for tossing out the old, expired system for a brand new one has arrived.

Denser is Better

One of the benefits of LiFePO4 (Lithium Iron Phosphate) batteries is the available charge is 80% of the nominal rating. That means a 100-amp hour battery will only have 80 amp hours available. Before you get too upset, consider that Lead Acid batteries (like AGMs) yield only 50% of their nominal rating. With almost twice the energy density, that means we can take our second bank of AGMs out of the engine room (where it gets too hot, anyway) and still have plenty of charge to run the fridge and the Starlink satellite dish. Adding new, bigger solar panels, Aleta should have plenty of charging capacity to keep things topped off. The time to retire our 18-year-old wind generator has also arrived. With all this investment in Aleta, we expect she will be ready to keep sailing for the next decade.

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