Another one of our major projects is complete: New rigging for our Harmonie. In the original plan this project was going to be next year when the parts all had their 15th birthday, but needing to shift to a new insurance company, we had to pull this forward. The local firm Nance and Underwood has a lot of experience with Amels and they are set up to make some of the bespoke parts that need to be replaced. All of the rig was replaced, Wires, turnbuckles, pins, everything between the chainplates and the mast.
The crew did a great job, getting everything installed, tuned, and ready to go in a bit less than 3 days of work on the boat.
The stainless steel wires that support our mast don’t change much in appearance as they age, but that doesn’t mean they don’t change. Small areas of corrosion build up, and repeated cycles of loading cause the metal to work-harden and lose strength. They have a finite life, and get risky as they get older.
Now all of our rig is new and ready to go for at least another decade of ocean sailing. We also had some minor sail repairs completed.
We did complete our insurance paper chase, and we’ll post an update on that soon. We did find a policy we were happy with, although it is expensive.
fetchinketch 
Hi Bill,
Did you use the original ACMO rigging material? I am also planning to Re-rig this summer. I got an offer which includes removing the mast as well. Seeing your pictures you didn’t do that. What’s your opinion on original material and dismasting?
Many thanks
Rink
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Rink,
You are correct, we did not remove the mast. We had no compelling reason to do so. There were no issues were we felt it needed to be horizontal for additional inspection or repair .beyond what we could do with it vertical
The rigging that was removed was 14 years old from ACMO and had one circumnavigation on it. Nothing was looking too bad, but the wires were starting to show a fair amount of surface rusting.
We did not use ACMO rigging for the replacement. We went with a rigger here in Fort Lauderdale who has a LOT of experience with Amels: Nance and Underwood. As an example, on the Super Maramu Amel used a custom turnbuckle under the genoa furler. Nance and Underwood makes a replacement in their machine shop out of bronze that works perfectly. They do enough SM re-rigs they might even keep these on the shelf.
N&U used Staylock fittings to terminate the wires. They cost a bit more in materials, but they allowed a much more efficient work flow–hence fewer hours of rigger time. At their shop they put terminals on one end of all the wires, which were cut slightly over length. As a wire comes off the boat, they lay it out on the dock next to its replacement, cut the new wire to exact length, install the other terminal fitting, and set the new wire up on the boat. It all happens fast enough that one member of the two man rigging team stays up the mast waiting for it. No error prone measurements, no running back and forth to the swaging machine in the shop.
I think the ACMO rig kit is a great option for anyone who is going to do the replacement themselves. We didn’t have the time for that in our schedule. From placing the order to having the boat ready to sail again took about 10 days.
Certainly ACMO makes a good product, with better swage quality than most small shops have the equipment to make, but this isn’t rocket science. Working with a rigger who really understands cruising boats, uses high quality materials, has experience with the few oddball quirks of the Amel rig, knows how to PROPERLY tune a complex rig, and things will come out fine.
Regards,
Bill
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Thanks Bill
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Beautiful!
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