WARNING--Rigging on Ebay

Hey everyone,
I thought I'd send out warning about buying rigging on Ebay. I'm not dissing Ebay or the sellers on it, (I actually sell a bunch of stuff on it myself) but you might want to think twice about trying to save a couple of bucks on something as important as the parts that keep your mast in the air. There is a lot of force on the rig!!!
Rules that I would advise to follow:

1) Only buy rigging from a reputable source. Someone with a shop specializing in sailboats is preferred--and an authorized Hobie Dealer is best. The tolerances for swage tools is critical and you just don't know how well maintained a "garage entrepreneur's" tools are. The rigging bench up at the "Marine Store" doesn't count as a well maintained tool either.

2) Never, ever buy used rigging. Why would someone be selling used rigging anyway? Because they got new stuff for their boat, which is what you should do.

Case in point:

3 miles off of Santa Cruz
1982 H 18
'New' rigging from Ebay
Mast down in 15kts and water temp at 52 deg F.
Wire broke at swage
Boat towed in after a search by the Harbor Patrol assisted by our regatta chase boat.








Moral of the story: Replace your rigging with quality parts. Pony up and get the Hobie wires. They use a hydraulic swage tool that they keep in good shape. The few dollars you save by buying used rig will get eaten up quickly if you have to get towed at $500 per hour by Vessel Assist!

http://www.hobiecat.com/company/dealer.html

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Sail Revolution
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I've always thought things like this shouldnt be bought on eBay. Thanks for the heads up, that sucks.

The rigging in the photo looks like it is pretty old and not well cared for. If the guy bought used rigging he is taking a big risk. I have had hobie rigging fail even brand new so I think the most important thing is to inspect your rigging before each sail. If you store your boat mast up and sail in salt water you should replace you rigging every couple of years or at first sign of wear or major rust. I had some brand new trap wires from Hobie that the trap handle broke in my wifes hand and cut here up pretty bad and we had to quit racing to go in and bandage her hand. My wife is pretty small and the handle should not have broken. The next day I broke the other one. I took the wires off and cut the ends and put the murray handles on. Never had another problem. I think Hobie fixed that problem but I have never seen the murray handle fail.

Yes, that was many years ago. Has not been a problem since.

_________________
Matt Miller
Former - Director of Parts and Accessory Sales
Warranty and Technical Support
Hobie Cat USA
(Retired 11/7/2022)