Upper failure?

[Tom Peterson]

Has anyone ever had their upper blow at the swedge? I went out tonight 15-20 with 4-6 foot waves thinking I was going to get my first good ride and I blew the upper. I sailed upwind 2 miles popped the kite and about a minute or two later the upper pulled from the swedge. I cannot believe I did not lose the rig. Any thoughts? I had put some extra turns on but nothing excessive. I released some tension from the vang before turning the corner????

[Tim Carter]

the roll swedge @ the T-hook fitting????   can't belive you did not loose the rig either....  shitz....

[Tom Peterson]

The swedge at the turnbuckle is where it failed!

Question, since I need to replace rigging: Where should I order from and what are some thoughts on the options for the turnbuckles? I know aps has a couple of options. I will also be replacing the lowers since the one side got bent and twisted pretty good. Thanks!

[Craig Wilusz]

We had a lower blow at just below the swedge a few weeks ago.  Had a great company replace them and we used Ronstan calibrated tunrbuckles on the lowers on the next go around.

When you order rigging, some riggin shops measure from touch point of the t-ball fitting to to bottom of the hole and some to the center of the hole.  Suggest you have the rigging on hand when you call in your order, it is far better to bring it into a rigger than to call it in.  The APS older style lowers (which we ordered to have a spare set) has a slightly smaller eye in the bottom end of the lower than what was on the original (2009).  So we bore it out a bit to make it all fit.

As far as way the upper blew?  Hell , anyone can guess, my guess is it compressed and snapped loaded on a wave/puff.  I have probably lost more than half a dozen rigs on various boats in my lifetime, and that seems to be the most common reason for failure.  I used to be a rigger in a riggin shop in my youth, the other commn failure was old corroded riggin, but that takes a long time to happen.
Craig