Re: Re-rigging the P-19 - Marketing paranoia rampant!

SR500F@aol.com
Wed, 24 Feb 1999 00:42:24 EST


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West Wight Potter Website at URL
http://www.lesbois.com/wwpotter/
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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