Chafe is a terrible thing for your rigging. The constant sawing action of two pieces rubbing together will damage one or both of these components which can lead to costly repairs or serious equipment failures!
A simple solution to protect your standing rigging is to cover your stays with PVC pipe. The stay can be covered with a small diameter pipe while the turnbuckles can be covered with a larger diameter pipe. Now everything is smooth and protected by a sacrificial layer of plastic. Nothing to rub on and nothing to snag!
The truth is, covering your standing rigging is actually a very bad idea. First for the structural integrity of your rigging, and second for the fact that “out of sight out of mind” is a dangerous motto on a sailboat.
The reason stainless steel is “stain less” is because the it contains more chromium than regular steel. The chromium reacts with oxygen to form a protective layer over the metal and prevent it from corrosion. In the absence of oxygen, this protective layer does not form and crevice corrosion can begin to occur.
Crevice corrosion is a very hard to see kind of corrosion that looks like little cracks in the steels surface. These microscopic cracks run deep beneath the steels surface and actually cause the steel to split and break apart. Crevice corrosion is a major reason why steel standing rigging only lasts about 10 years, longer than that and the rigging will be at too high a risk of having microscopic crevice corrosion which will cause its demise.
Creating a sealed environment will create an environment where the oxygen gets used up until it becomes oxygen deprived and crevice corrosion will begin. This means that the rigging will die earlier and sooner than if it were left exposed to the elements; and more importantly exposed to oxygen.
The other problem with covering your rigging is that you don’t see it. Minor issues like “a pin fell out” or “that looks rusty” will go unnoticed because they are not easily seen. Every boat owner has good intentions to properly care for their boat, but when you walk down the pier at any marina you will see the effects of chronic neglect! Covering your rigging will create one additional step in the process of inspecting your rigging, and that is a process that sadly is usually relegated to “if it catches your eye” inspections.
By having your rigging exposed, you will see it and you will hopefully look at it and if anything changes on it you will notice it and fix it before the problem escalates out of control and your mast comes down!
So, while covering your rigging makes it looks sleeker, it is best to avoid all the work involved in covering your rigging and keep it visible. This will make it last longer and make it easier to inspect so that your entire yacht will continue to perform at its best.
