You can do your own stuff with Nicopress, yes. You won't be doing your own swaged fittings, unless you happen to own the right kind of machine shop... :-) I am most often a pretty dedicated DIY person myself, and that said, standing rigging is one of the few places I get it done by a quality specialized provider. My experience with the bulky, clunky, snagging, jamming crooked while trying to raise mast-prone nicopress standing rigging my boat came with is a main reason why. Also when I looked into it - had to, for the new forestay - it's really not that expensive, for what you are getting. My new forestay, swaged with clean simple functional, right hardware for the job, minimal snag/tangle/jam ends, was ~$65, and that included ~$10 shipping from east to west coast. Parts $7 each for swage marine eye (top) and swage rigging stud (bottom). Two swages at $7.50 each. Wire to length at just under $15. So $44 actually - but I needed a toggle up top for forestay, ~$11 part, so $55 plus shipping. If I had realized when getting forestay that I'd need backstay and ordered both at once I'd have saved a few $$ on shipping. Main thing is, you have to do very very (very) careful measurements to give to the shop. If they make it to your spec and it's too short or long...it's on you. There are also DIY compression fittings you could try for some applications. Look up 'swageless' fittings from marine suppliers. Norseman and Sta-Lok and Hayn hi-mod are some of the brands I've seen. Bulkier than machine swaged, but cleaner than nicopress. And you can't use them for some applications, for example a forestay with furler. Also they are pretty pricey per fitting (though you can re-use them). Like $30-$40 and up for a single fitting (stud, eye, etc.). Machine swage fitting plus swaging is half the price or less. There are no doubt applications that DIY nicopress is handy for, but from my experience I would recommend against it for your standing rigging. cheers, John On 03/19/2019 07:21 PM, Gerry Lempicki via montgomery_boats wrote:
I had to just go out with a flashlight to look for the whisker pole loop on the front of the mast; it was there! I hadn't noticed it before. Wow, I sure am glad I posted here today. Being a newbie I was a bit frustrated this morning trying to figure some of this out and wondering what I got myself into. I think all my assembly questions have been answered! For today anyway. LOL The one burning question left in my mind is what to do for replacing the standing rigging. Is there a compelling reason to leave the nicro press oval sleeve and thimbles for the swaged wire style terminations? It seems that a tool to do nicro press sleeve crimping is reasonable enough, the others not so much. I'd probably have a shop make them if changing style.
On Tuesday, March 19, 2019, 9:16:13 PM EDT, swwheatley@comcast.net <swwheatley@comcast.net> wrote:
To anchor the gooseneck downhaul you need one of these cleats (available from Dwyer) that goes in the mast slot at the base of the mast.
You are right about the mainsheet and blocks. That o.e. 3 part system is a little underpowered and a lot of us have upgraded to a 4 part system.
The two blocks with the snap shackles are the jib/genoa sheet lead blocks. They attach through the various slots in the aluminum toerail, and can be moved more forward or aft to adjust sail twist.
The Forespar branded pole is a whisker pole for the jib or genoa, a nice bonus. It is used to keep the sail from collapsing when running downwind. The "probe" goes in the sail's clew cringle and the clip attaches to a loop that should be about 3 feet up on the front of the mast.
I do not recognize the custom whatsit but it probably is supposed to be used to secure something for trailering.
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