Meat hooks

dhmeissner · May 10, 2018

Found some meat hooks on my steering cable. Sniped the off, re-tensioned everything and greased all of it with lithium grease. Should I worry?

psneeld · May 10, 2018

Never great, but if the load is way below rated cable strength, then not to worry.

There is guidance available, my old marlinspike book has some on broken strands on different wires and their strength loss. So a little research on the web or call a local rigging company maybe?

markpierce · May 10, 2018

Difficult to evaluate without scale. If cables are half-inch in diameter, there should be plenty of strength left. If one-eighth, I'd replace.

boatpoker · May 10, 2018

Replace ! Simply not worth the risk.

dhmeissner · May 10, 2018

The wheel turns with one finger. The cables are 1/4”. I will take care of it. And will install an auxiliary tiller, the thought of losing steerage scares the bejezuz out of me.

Simi 60 · May 11, 2018

Have used spectra on performance sailing cats before, no meathooks.

gaston · May 11, 2018

Meat hooks are Gods warning **** is about to happen!!!!!!

Simi 60 · May 11, 2018

gaston said:
Meat hooks are Gods warning **** is about to happen!!!!!!

Yep, honestly thought wire had gone the way of the dodo.
Had wire halyards once, got meathooks, went to spectra.
Had wire lifelines once, they met the same fate.

FF · May 11, 2018

In the past folks used Bronze cable , instead of SS or iron.

Seens to stand the envirinment better.

Edson may still to stock it.

menzies · May 11, 2018

I have the same issue with my davit cable. Planning on replacing before the next cruise - why worry?

Simi 60 · May 11, 2018

FF said:
In the past folks used Bronze cable , instead of SS or iron.

Seens to stand the envirinment better.

Edson may still to stock it.

Why?
Spectra, vectran, amsteel even prestretched polyester would be better

Larry M · May 11, 2018

I wouldn’t panic or stop using the boat. I’d monitor the cable and put replacement cable on my to do list. I can’t tell from the picture what cable it is but the breaking strength for 1/4” aircraft cable, 1 x 19 strand is ~8200 lbs. For 7 x 7 strand it’s 6,100 lbs and for 7 x 19 strand it’s ~6,400 lbs. We had meat hooks on our David for about year till we replaced it and never felt there was a danger in the cable failing.

RT Firefly · May 11, 2018

Greetings,
Mr. LM. How could anyone named David be of any danger? Unless your name was Goliath...

C lectric · May 11, 2018

menzies said:
I have the same issue with my davit cable. Planning on replacing before the next cruise - why worry?

A davit cable break would be a nuisance. Maybe a serious and/or dangerous nuisance if someone got in the way.

A rudder cable break could be life threatening. Then there is no direction control. Generally meathooks are a sign that the cable is coming to its life end. There may be more internal broken strands that simply have not shown their colours.

Change it. At least start the process of finding a replacement.

Xsbank · May 11, 2018

On an aircraft, even when the wires in the cable get merely shiny they are tossed. Throw them away.

Larry M · May 11, 2018

RT Firefly said:
Greetings,
Mr. LM. How could anyone named David be of any danger? Unless your name was Goliath...

..

Meat hooks

dhmeissner

Guru

psneeld

Guru

markpierce

Master and Commander

boatpoker

Guru

dhmeissner

Guru

Simi 60

Guru

gaston

Guru

Simi 60

Guru

FF

Guru

menzies

Guru

Simi 60

Guru

Larry M

Guru

RT Firefly

Enigma

C lectric

Guru

Xsbank

Guru

Larry M

Guru

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