local heroes

The SSANZ Round the North Island Race doesn’t come along very often, so Mark Taylor wasn’t taking any chances.

He wanted to make sure that everything with the mast on his Stewart 34 Pahi was ship-shape before embarking on the race again in February this year. “Things tend to snowball, when you’re sailing, particularly when you’re shorthanded, and particularly when you’re offshore,” says Taylor. “So, we engaged the services of Rigpro to get an expert update on our rig to ensure it was efficient, well set up and robust before the race, to give us confidence and comfort when sailing offshore in all conditions.” Mark contacted Rigpro, located in Silo Park, Auckland, conveniently located close by to his yacht that is moored at Westhaven. He found that Alexis and the staff at Rigpro had a “high level of experience and technical expertise that I could trust. They had many positive suggestions on improvements to the setup and systems onboard that would help with efficiency and reliability moving forward as well as carrying out a 10 year service that we expect will make the rig reliable for the next decade.” Most insurance companies insist upon these services being carried out at regular intervals in order to maintain cover of a mast. Rigpro is there to assist local yachties with preparation and maintenance of their boats. They help make sure that your boat is ready to go and reliable, whatever the event you are building up to – whether it’s club racing, your annual Christmas cruise, or an offshore race. “Preventative maintenance is the key to that,” says Taylor. “Thanks to Rigpro, we sailed all the way around the North Island without a single breakage or major issue with any standing or running rigging.”