Steel wire

[Durcott]

Hi Folks, been away for a while, now on the hunt for a boat again.

I had a look at a 24' yacht yesterday, described as 'tatty'. Well it turned out to be a barge pole job.

However, two general points emerged that I'd like to ask about.

1) Is it acceptable for standing rigging to be terminated with a simple thimble and a single crimp ferrul? I've only seen the proper cold forged/rolled (?) terminations on boats.

2) one strand of the backstay was corroded to a black colour. Is this just a sign of old age, or of inferior quality wire?

Thanks

Jeff

 

[spinny]

[ QUOTE ]

1) Is it acceptable for standing rigging to be terminated with a simple thimble and a single crimp ferrul? I've only seen the proper cold forged/rolled (?) terminations on boats.

2) one strand of the backstay was corroded to a black colour. Is this just a sign of old age, or of inferior quality wire?


[/ QUOTE ]

It use to be the norm between 10-20 years ago to terminate 1 x 19 stainless steel yacht standing rigging wire by wrapping the wire around a thimble and securing with a pressed ferrule. This was not ideal but was the only way to do it at the time.
It was not ideal because 1 x 19 wire is not meant to be bent in such a tight arc. It is meant to stay in a straight line.
If you look at the 'crown' of any 1 x 19 wire which has been bent around a thimble you will see the strands have started to splay out which in turn weakens the wire.
The introduction of the roll swage and roto swage techniques into the yachting industry allowed terminals to be swaged onto 1 x 19 wire in a straight line.
So my recommendation here is to change any old 1 x 19 standing rigging which have thimble eyes with new roll swaged eyes.

I can't make any judgements with regards the black coloured strand in the backstay, but if it also has the thimble eyes in it then it will have been there for a long time and should be changed out as well.