Colligo Marine Spotlight - Guy Stevens
by Colligo Marine 19 Nov 2022 14:21 PST
Guy Stevens © Guy Stevens
Colligo Marine has had the pleasure of knowing and working with Guy for over the past 17 years. He is an avid sailor with experience as a marine surveyor, rigger, and 100 ton master. In other words, Guy knows his stuff about boating.
Guy runs Real World Cruising with his wife, Melissa. Their business is very hands-on, which allows their clients to develop both technical and soft skills needed to make their sailing life as wonderful as possible.
This hands-on teaching and consulting approach raises their client's ability to deal with any situation. They will gain the skills and knowledge they need by participating in every step of the process. This involvement helps them be the best, most skilled, least anxious, and safest sailors they can be.
We like to help people lead interesting lives, whether that is sailing around the bay or heading across the Pacific. Rigging is only a small portion of our business. We are a team of teachers, we like our clients to work with us, learning as much as possible through all parts of their projects. - Guy Stevens
To learn more realworldcruising.com
Guy and Colligo Marine
Guy met Colligo Marine's John Franta through their mutual friend, Brion Toss. Guy was just about to do a rerig for a long time client on a beautiful Cal 35. Guy and Melissa had personally sailed that Cal 35 thousands of miles under several stainless steel rigs. This made it the perfect test vehicle for their first Colligo Marine rerig. The Cal 35 is a beautiful sailing boat to begin with. They were hoping for some subtle changes in performance and sea kindliness as everyone already loved the way the boat sailed and behaved. They were all shocked at the improvements in boat performance and motion from the first time they sailed with the new rig!
As they sailed that Cal 35 up and down the west coast over the next few years, Guy mentions that the performance and security of being able to easily see the condition of the rigging shifted him in recommending, almost exclusively, Colligo Marine products when they do a rerig.
Why Colligo Marine?
Guy explains that the evolution of standing rigging keeps going; it didn't stop at stainless steel. Colligo Marine's products are the current step in that evolution. Guy and Melissa teach that historically marine rigging started with natural fibers for standing rigging, and moved to metal rope as the loads increased. They have moved through various metals for strength, always looking for less corrosion.
Now they have evolved beyond stainless steel to synthetic materials. The best of these materials are stronger, lighter, and non corrosive. "Colligo Marine rigging solutions share all of the best characteristics of those original natural fiber rigs; you are able to completely inspect them using your own eyes, you can create and adapt them using your own skills and a few simple hand tools, and it is easy to understand what the rig is doing and what the forces and stresses are on your rig," stated Guy.
This big jump in evolution comes with the advantages that Colligo Standing Rigging is stronger, lighter than metal rope rigs, and does not suffer from corrosion.
Guy goes on to explain that Colligo Marine's dedication to safety and the ability for all of their clients to easily inspect their rigging and components makes them their first choice for most of their clients. Most of their clients are blue water sailors. Guy stated that,
The ocean is Mother Nature at her most raw; she can be beautiful and soothing, but she can also be fierce and frightening in her power. The ability to know the condition of your rig by visually inspecting it really adds to our clients understanding and confidence in their boats when sailing away from land. The additional strength and vastly increased safety factors that Colligo Marine Synthetic Rigging offers, removes some of the anxiety that our clients feel when they head offshore.
Guy and Melissa have used pretty much every Colligo Marine product on either their own boat, an Ericson 46, or their clients boats. They also enjoy being our pre production testers for several of our products.
Learn more about Colligo Marine Standing Rigging by heading over to our website, or contact us for any specific questions.