Page 146 - Barbara Merry - The Splicing Handbook

5/8-inch (16 mm) blue galvanized combination wire (This combines

synthetic rope with a wire heart and is used only for splicing training or on
fishing boats.)
5/8-inch (16 mm) 6 × 17 galvanized wire, lightly greased
9/16-inch (14 mm) 6 × 17 galvanized wire

9/32-inch (7 mm) 1 × 19 stainless steel

Alternate Rigging Materials
There are other, specialized materials, mostly found on high-tech boats. One
brand is Dyform, which is a specially constructed type of stainless steel wire that

carries greater strength for less weight. Materials used in standing rigging
include rod (stainless), Kevlar, PBO (Zylon, which is a polymer), and Vectran
(also a polymer).

Four Boats and Their Rigging Wire
The four examples that follow illustrate the use of wire in boat rigging.

Two Eagles is a 19-foot (6 m) fiberglass Bristol built in 1978 in Bristol, Rhode
Island. She carries a fractional marconi rig, with stays and shrouds of 3/16-inch
(5 mm) 1 × 19 stainless steel with swaged forks and eyes. Her topping lift is
1/16-inch (1.5 mm) 7 × 19 stainless steel. Her running rigging is all fiber rope,
and there are no lifelines. The builder designed and installed her rigging, and
since then the owner has not changed the hull or mast. Should the rigging need
replacing, all the owner would do is call the factory in Bristol.

Next is Sea Fire, a Crocker 30.6 (#267). She is a full-keel wooden boat
designed by Sam Crocker and built in Manchester, Massachusetts, in 1952 by
Crocker’s son. Sea Fire is marconi rigged, with stays and shrouds of 9/32-inch
(7 mm) 1 × 19 stainless steel with swaged forks and eyes. Two stays of ¼-inch
(6 mm) 1 × 19 are under the bow pulpit and two stays of the same size hold the
boomkin (the aft spar). Her running backstays are 5/32-inch (4 mm) 7 × 19
stainless steel. (Note that the diameter measurement includes the coating on the
wires, which protects against chafe on the sails.) Her lifelines are 7/16-inch (11
mm) stainless steel coated with white vinyl (most lifelines I’ve seen are 1 × 19
stainless steel), and the forks and eyes on her lifelines and running backstays are
swaged. The outhaul on the mainsail boom is 1/8-inch (3 mm) 7 × 19 stainless
steel.