Guardwires

[billcowan]

Our guardwires lost their plastic coating a few years ago when it became too squalid. We replaced that with that slit plastic sleeving, total crep, it disintegrated within 3 years. New coated wire is quite expensive (£2.50/M) and the terminals are outrageous at £19 an eye (and you need 8)

We quite like the idea of just using 8mm halyard (prestretched polyester braid) at about £1/M with hard eyes on the ends and lashings.

Antbody tried it?


Better still is Parafil, which is PVC coated polyester and made for the job (the lifeboats use it). (so yes 8mm polyester must be strong enough) at around £1.60/M is cheap enough. But the problem is the terminals are even more outrageous at £30 each!

Question is this, does anybody know if Parafil is OK to be made into an eye with a thimble and crimp (Talurit) ? or even thimble and binding.

 

[William_H]

I don't know why you need coated or covered wire. Certainly the sun will kill any plastic coating quite quickly.
People around here use hott water pipe foam insualtion as a covering in the areas where you lean your back on the wires. That would be more comfortable than wire covered in thin layer of plastic. olewill

 

[damo]

I replaced my wires with parafil - lovely stuff. I couldn't afford more fittings at the time, when I decided to have an opening section next to the cockpit, so I used a thimble and whipping. It squeezes down nicely and the thread grips very well, and because I don't know the breaking strength I (hopefully!) over-engineered it: the whipped section is about 6" long

 

[Sequoiah1]

You should not use plastic coated, just plain wire.

 

[jwilson]

I have done so in the past: as long as your stanchion ends are smooth so as not to fray the rope I don't see much wrong with it. Breaking strain can be quite adequate even with polyester ropes, and you can see any damage easily. If breaking train is a worry Dyneema rope in 8mm can have a breaking strain of 3-4 tons - far stronger than the wire you are replacing, though it's horribly expensive in itself.

 

[vyv_cox]

I fitted Parafil on a previous boat. Seemed OK at first but seemed to stretch a lot. I was always retightening. The plastic coating was just the same as the stuff on wire - suffers from deplasticising and eventually cracking.

If the life of the plastic is too short for you I would do as others suggest, just use uncoated wire.

 

[doug748]

I have made up my own with wire and Stalock terminals, the fittings are quite expensive but pay for themselves as they can be reused. Where protection was needed (genoa) I have threaded small bore polythene tubing, bought from the home brew or aquarium shop. Because you have used the make and break terminals new tubing can always be added; tho I have not needed to do that as the tubing has lasted well over 5 years.

 

[pyrojames]

I have just ordered new guard rails, fittings, pelican hooks and shackles for a 50 footer for just shy of £200 from a couple of ebay sellers. The most expensive bits were the swageless fittings at £9 each.

 

[rickym]

Stainless steel wire should not be coated as stainless needs to breathe otherwise it will corrode within the plastic sheath. A competent rigger should be able to make up your guard wires fairly cheaply. I used an eye and cord becket at one end in case I needed to remove my guardwires in an emergency I can just cut the cord.

 

[swampthing]

I use D12. (unsheathed dyneema) which is great to form an eye splice with the correct fid. Stronger than stainless

 

[William_H]

I recently looked at a few maxi racers (30 metre) in Hobart after Sydney to Hobart race. The only stainless steel I saw on the boats was the guard wires. Everything else was rope of some sort including mast stays. I presume this was to meet some yacht racing rule.
no it was not plastic covered. olewilll