Hey, Y'all,
Just got back from New Orleans, where I grew up. Boy, they are really struggling with the oil spill down there...and just about the time it looked like they were going to survive Katrina.

But I digress...

I'm going to have my standing rigging replaced this summer and have read all the previous posts I could find regarding same. What are your thoughts about swaged vs mechanical fittings? Would you replace all the hardware, too? I'm thinking I'll go with the swaged fittings and keep the best old one of each size as spares. Maybe buy an extra-long mechanical fitting of each size to do repairs as I'm told that breaks usually occur at the lower-end fittings. Could maybe do a repair even at sea??? Would you change to US sizes instead of metric?...I'll be sailing in S. Pacific before these start to wear out, so I'd like to have some ability to do repairs if something snapped.

Any thoughts?

Thanks,
Kent
SM243
KRISTY