Page 202 - The Complete Rigger’s Apprentice

we end up with 14 feet 4 inches to enter under “Cut
Length.” If you take a wire that length and use
1
2 feet of it to make two splices with 4 ⁄ 2-inch-
circumference eyes around thimbles, you will most
assuredly get a shroud that is 11 feet 10 inches long.
Repeat this procedure with the other wires to
obtain the rest of the cut lengths.

Measuring Soft Eyes The above procedure also
works for eyes made around deadeyes, lizards, or
other thimble-like objects, but a soft eye—an eye
made around a mast—poses a couple of extra prob-
lems. First, soft eyes might travel at various angles
across a mast, ranging from horizontal to a steep
diagonal, depending on the rig. How can we deter-
mine eye length and circumference for an eye at any
angle? Second, what portion of the finished length
of the wire does the eye constitute?
For a nearly horizontal lead, the simplest
though seldom seen case, the eye rests on a “stop,” a
shoulder formed by a reduction of mast diameter at
the desired height. An obvious and simple procedure
is to measure the circumference of the mast above
the shoulder and make an eye of this circumference.
Unfortunately, this results in an eye that is far too
small, since there’s no allowance for the thickness of
the wire (Figure 6-6). One response is to add wire
diameter (including its layers of service and leather)
to mast diameter, giving a “working diameter” that
extends to the center of the wire on either side (Fig-
ure 6-7). Multiply the working diameter by π to find
the eye circumference. The eye can still be too tight
to be practical, however; the wire has to bend at
nearly a right angle where it exits the seizing. Wire
rope is reluctant to do this, and the seizing would in

Figure 6-6. Making an eye exactly the mast circum-
ference doesn’t work, because wire thickness isn’t
allowed for.

Figure 6-5. In this sample case, a cut length of
14 feet 4 inches is obtained by subtracting two thim-
ble lengths (1 ⁄4 inches each), adding two thimble cir-
3
cumferences (4 ⁄2 inches each), and also adding two
1
splicing lengths (1 foot each) to the finished length.

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