Braided steering line vs Nylon coated stainless steel

[madstork]

What are your thoughts pro or con. I am rigging my boat. Want to go to a Race this Fall !!!

Sincerely,

Doug Follett
87-P

[Tom Cronk]

What class boat are you rigging??
Tom

[madstork]

Tom, DSH/750MH

[proprider]

Doug, I've been using the 3/16 sailboat rigging line. I got it at West Marine and have had it on my 750 hydro for almost 8 seasons, no wear to date and it doesn't stretch. Check it out online and see the specs. When I first put it on it felt as smooth as power steering. Comes in a variety of colors too!

[madstork]

Thanks Joe.

[tenney]

Most of the coated wire rope is junk and is sold at hardware stores.......it looks nice but it will fail. This happened to racer at the last USTS race in Springfield, IL.

The best wire rope to use is 7x19 uncoated wire rope which is used for sailing applications. You can get this from Tom Cronk and from West Marine.

For braided lines use Dyneema or Spectra rope. These ropes come in colors and are available at West Marine.

[jon66w]

I'd be careful of any uncoated wire that is above the side decks. In a race at Ocoee in the 70's I was leading the race and was almost to finish line when my DSR Stippich which was rigged with aircraft stainless wire, took off and did a back flip and threw me out. I was wearing sneakers and caught my heel when I was going out slicing my heel down to the Achilles tendon . They flew me to the Orlando Hospital in a chopper landing on their front lawn. Luckily the tendon was just bruised so they washed it out and put me in a cast for a month. Since that time I had any wire rope covered with plastic and wore boots when racing.

[ZUL8TR]

Raced back in the 70's (25ssh, 20ssh) used clear coated wire no issue, run same boat with same rigging today and still no problems with the coated wire in great shape. Just my experience.

[Big Don]

I think the stuff we ran back in the 70';s was way better than the junk made today.

We have had 2 coated steering cables fail over the years since Donny has been racing 20/C.

[bh/]

I had the plastic coated wire fail on my DSH a few years back. The outer covering cracked where it goes over the coaming pulley, and got jammed in the pulley coming out of a turn. Not nice ! Careful inspection would prevent this. Do we tighten the cables now much more than we used to ? I use WEST pre-stretched halyard rope now .

[ZUL8TR]

BTW back in the 70's I used indirect tie back steering and tightened the steering fairly tight no issues with the clear coated wire. These days I use direct steering really tight same cable no issues. I agree with Big Don they made better coated cable back then. Back in the 70's was working as a research engineer at a marine experiment facility I had access to great quality marine supplies my cable came from there. The box store stuff today is probably low quality?

Terrible that you had that issue with the cable failure during a race. Yes to inspections every time out.

[susqueduck]

HTS 75 Dyneema line from West Marine. 15 times the strength of same size steel cable. Smooth as silk, no stretch.

[Ram4x4]

I'll second the nomination for the dyneema line from West Marine. Replaced my coated steel cables with it and I'll never go back.

[madstork]

Thanks All. Going with braid. One question. Single or double Braid?

Doug

[susqueduck]

Dyneema!!!

[Shorewood]

Regardless of wire or rope, it’s important to inspect with magnification, much like a surveyor does on sailboat rigging. Micro cracks or damage can be there that you might miss with the naked eye. I recently found a crack in the wire casing at the coaming pulley, as described earlier, and replaced it straight away. And again regardless of cable or line, I recommend replacing it each season for peace of mind. One snag or nick can start degradation that might lead to failure.

[madstork]

10-4 That! Safety First!