Usually the replacement is about the same. The loads are much higher on a beach cat with the drag of the boat resisting the push of the sails, higher package weight, and generally higher crew weight. Average hang glider weight is about 60 to 80 lbs and you don't see many pilots above 200 lbs. But with the risk of plummeting 8000-10000 feet, people tend to be less casual about how often they refresh the rigging. Most of the gliders these days use ball swage, which works like a nico, its basically a stainless ball with a hole for the wire, and the ball slots into another fitting, instead of having the wire bent into an eye.
BTW, I highly advise any sailor who gets a chance to try hang gliding to go for it. The modern gliders are all destruction tested before new models are certified, and almost everybody has a ballistic (rocket launched) back-up parachute. Right now the open distance record is 437 miles!
Not bad for a 60 lb bundle of cloth and tubes that takes 15 minutes to set up....