Glad to hear any opinions on this.
Bill Longyard
SR500F@aol.com wrote:
>
> - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
> West Wight Potter Website at URL
> http://www.lesbois.com/wwpotter/
> - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
> I have also read "Understanding Rigs and Rigging" and had the same concern as
> yourself. Even the author finds fault in each rigging system he described - he
> mentions the same concerns about corrosion in the axially crimped components
> that our pal SF mentions in his post .
>
> I have rationalized it all as follows:
>
> 1x 19 rigging wire is the best and strongest stuff in a straight pull.
> However, it doesn't like to be formed into a tight radius, is stressed
> unevenly, and is weaker in the area of the bend. Indeed, even the tiny 3/32
> 1x19 wire used on my P-15 cannot be bent tight enough to even hold the
> thimbles tightly.
>
> The right wire to be used with thimbles and crimps is the flexible 7x19. This
> does indeed work well around the terminations - I've made several tack
> pendants for my jib (courtesy of the self-serve equipment at my local West
> Marine store) of different lengths. However, 7x 19 wire is not as strong and
> is a little more stretchy than 1x19.
>
> So we have a stronger wire that's weakened a bit at the ends or a weaker wire
> that crimps nicely. I've concluded that it's more or less a wash. I think we
> can assume, since boats larger and heavier than the Potters use the same size
> rigging, that the standard stuff has plenty of margin in normal use.
>
> I lurked on the Catalina 22 list a while back and within the first couple of
> days there was a long thread on broken masts - most initiated by standing
> rigging failures. I've followed the Potter list for almost a year and I can
> recall only one lost mast - That being that P-15 in the Sea of Cortez - and
> that was initiated by a pop rivet pulling out, not by wire breakage.
>
> If I was going to re-do the standing rigging of my P-15, rather than going
> with expensive terminations on 1 x 19 wire, I think I'd use 1/8" 7x19 (one
> size larger), thimbles and crimps. That would have similar performance, I
> believe, and I could make the parts, and any subsequent replacements required,
> myself, which appeals to me.
>
> Best regards,
>
> Dave Kautz
> P-15 #1632 Tilly Lucy
> Palo Alto, CA