Rigger Brion Toss takes a close look the shroud aboard Three Sheets. Trouble can lurk in when we fail to look.

Long before we had auxiliary engines, electronics or even plumbing, for that matter, the most complicated part of most boats was the rigging — that mass of wires or ropes that hold the pointy bits in a vertical position.

Like those other systems, getting to understand how your rigging works and — more importantly — how it can fail is a critical issue for most sailboat owners (and probably a few trawler owners as well). Failure to do so can lead to some very bad things, as this video we recently posted shows.

So one of the to-dos on my list before we departed for our planned trip to Barkely Sound on the west coast of Vancouver Island was to have the stays, shrouds, mast and rigging inspected and tuned on our 1989 Island Packet 38.

In the Northwest, we are fortunate to have a number of really good riggers specializing in everything from racing boats to slow-poke cruisers. Folks such as Chris Tutmark and Andy Schwenk come to mind (and please list others you like in the comments section below).

Perhaps the best known of all of them is Brion Toss, whose rigging shop in Port Townsend is recognized far and wide not only for the skills of Toss and his crew, but also for the rigging books, videos and gear that it sells.

In my mind, riggers are a lot like barbers — when you find one you like, you tend to stick with them. And through the years of my boat ownership, I’ve pretty much stuck with Toss.

So a few weeks back, I called Toss’ shop and scheduled a time when he would be down in Seattle.

Toss is an affable guy, confident in his skills and a stickler for details. He loves a fairlead above all else — and isn’t afraid to tell you how to achieve one.

Best of all, he not only doesn’t mind if you tag along while he inspects the rig, he encourages it. And for me, if I’m going to shell out the money, I want to learn a few things in the process.

So on the appointed day and time, Toss showed up at Elliott Bay Marina toting his kit of tools and climbing gear. After a bit of chit-chat, he set about his work.

There are a number of tools of his trade, include the Loos rig tension gauge, fids, climbing harness and ubiquitous tube of Tef Gel (used to prevent corrosion wherever stainless and aluminum parts meet on the boat). But perhaps most important was his iPhone, which he used to make voice memos and take pictures during the inspection.

We started on deck, checking carefully the swages and the shrouds and stays. He examined each with a portable microscope to look for the telltale signs of crevice corrosion that could bring down an entire mast. In our case, he was happy to report that things seemed to be in good shape and that we had a least a few more years left on the rig before we’d have to contemplate replacement.

Next, he moved to the fore- and stay-sail furlers, which were apparently original equipment on our now 22-year-old boat. Again, they were in okay shape for their age and, although they will need servicing, can probably last quite a bit longer.

But he did notice some ways to improve how the furling line is run aft to the cockpit (did I mention he likes fairleads?), which could be achieved without a lot of expensive equipment, by just moving what we already had to a different location.

We then spent time looking at my mainsheet traveler and again devising a few ways to make it work better at very little additional cost.

We took apart a primary winch to check the condition and to remind me where one should put grease on a winch and where one shouldn’t (keep it out of the paws).

Next up was the boom. Toss provided advice on how to improve my lazy jacks, create a good outhaul, rig a proper boom preventer and get my jiffy reefing to work better. When he got to the place where the boom vang attaches to the mast, he found something worth replacing. It was clearly distorted and I needed a new one.

With that deck work done, Toss donned his climbing gear and with me handling the backup line, he ascended the mast. On the way up, he checked the spreaders, weld joints and the attachment points for the stays and shrouds. He also looked at the top of the furling gear, where the “Darth Vader hat” — so called for its resemblance to the Star Wars original — prevents the halyard from wrapping around the stay. This bit needed some adjusting and probably a little bit of work later on. But again, he found nothing to keep me awake at night.

Back on deck again, Toss walked me through the process for properly tuning the rig. Not surprisingly, since I haven’t properly tuned it for awhile and had removed the stays to re-bed the chainplate covers recently, it was a bit loose. I’ll have some fine-tuning to do under sail, but overall, the effort should pay off with better performance.

Taking part in the whole process reminded me just how important it is not to fall into the trap of set-it-and-forget-it on a boat. Whether we are talking rigging, engines, electronics or plumbing, the art of boat ownership lies in the knowledge that everything around you is in a state of decay.

Your job is to make sure that you are doing all in your power to prevent it when you can, recognize the warning signs when you can’t and take action to fix things before things put you in a fix.

That is the art of an inspection.

About Marty McOmber

Marty McOmber is editor and co-founder of Three Sheets Northwest. He is an avid sailor and long-time professional journalist. You can find Marty aboard Three Sheets, an Island Packet 38.

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