Joe, It may take some searching to find someone who will work on older rod rigging but they do exist. Here in the Boston area, North East Rigging out of Concord MA has this expertise. Call around and hopefully you can find someone in your area who can do the work. Does it save money in the end vs going with a newer dyneema solution - I am not sure and it will depend on what problems the rigger runs into as they go along? Inspection is a challenge if the rig hasn't been taken apart in a while - last year on my 1981 C&C34 a lot of my fittings were seized and could not be inspected so that did require complete disassembly and reheading all of the rods. One rod had to be replaced as did the turnbuckles and the fittings on the end of the spreader. The spreaders ended up being a lot of work and parts because the threads stripped on a part and no replacement was available. Replacement parts then required machining the ends of the spreaders. Also the aluminum through bolts in the mast all had to be replaced which required custom machining of the ends to accommodate replacement stainless steel threaded. Including a new wire forestay and harken furler it came to ~$12k for all the parts and labor including setting up and tuning the rig. The rod rigging does seem to last a long time so I am hopeful that this will be good to go for many years to come.
Nathan ~~~ S/V Wisper 1981 C&C 34 CB Lynn MA
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