Re-rigging. Got some free wire.

[Travis McGee]

Hey,
I am in the middle of re-rigging my 48 foot steel cutter after 20 years. About 1/2 of 3/8 SS wire, 1X19. I am re-using the mechanical terminals, so I have chopped the old wire off very close to their ends. I noticed that the old wire appears to be: perfect where it was bedded in silicone 20 years ago. A bit rusty-looking on the core where the 7 wires go the other way, but only at the bottom foot or so of the wire. (Where you have to unstrand it to re-use the end fittings.) The rest of the wire looks great.

Having just taken it apart and seen it, i'd say that I'd cross a couple more oceans with the wire as it was. before I cut it and replaced it with new stuff. So why replace it? ONE: I didn't know what it looked like inside until now, while re-rigging and unstranding lots of wire, and TWO: I'm getting long in the tooth. and I'm doing the job while I still can. Now I know the new wire will be good until I'm pushing 80 (at least). At that point, replacing it will be up to somebody else. Or not.

Getting to the point of the thread (at last), I have a couple of pieces of 3/8" SS wire that might solve somebody's desperate problem. I don't want to curb this stuff for the junk man to melt down. A couple of pieces of this wire, as-is, might solve some shoe-string budget cruiser's immediate problem. I'll send it to anybody who needs it if they kick for shipping. Four lowers are about 17' long now, probably nobody can use it, but I have them. Two intermediates are about 38' long and the staysail forestay is about 42'.

In a week or so I'll be taking down longer caps in 7/16s, if anybody is interested. I just don't want the wire recycled if somebody can use it. There's easily another 10 years of sailing in them. (Me, that's another question.)

[billknny]

It would be a bad idea to reuse stainless steel rigging wire that has been sailed for 20 years, no matter what it looks like.

You aren't replacing it because it is rusty. You are replacing it because of crevice corrosion--which is very hard to see--and metal fatigue--which is invisible.

[Travis McGee]

Originally Posted by billknny

It would be a bad idea to reuse stainless steel rigging wire that has been sailed for 20 years, no matter what it looks like.

You aren't replacing it because it is rusty. You are replacing it because of crevice corrosion--which is very hard to see--and metal fatigue--which is invisible.

That sounds great in theory. But I don't want to bin the wire when a piece or two might get some shoestring budget sailor out of the yard and to his next port of call. I unlaid quite a bit of it out of curiosity, and it's all shiny silver except for the last foot or so near the ends. (I end for ended ten years in.)

I'm not recommending it as somebody's great wire for the next decade, just to get a broke sailor out of a pinch.

I have two caps of 7/16" that are about 55 feet long of usable wire, two 3/8" wires about 42'. If nobody needs it, great. I would just prefer that it solve some broke cruiser's temporary problem instead of being binned.

The stuff is pretty heavy, so shipping would not be cheap, but I'm in NE Florida if anybody wants to pick it up.