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Old 11-17-2009
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KeelHaulin KeelHaulin is offline
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If your rigging is properly tensioned to between 10-15% of breaking strength; the broken (loose) strand should pull away from the tensioned wires. If that happens it would not matter if it breaks outside the swage or one wire diameter inside. The thing to remember about wire rigging is that it fails slowly; not all at once (in most cases). So when strands start breaking free it is very evident that the wire has reached it's fatigue limits and it is time to replace it; where in rod rigging it snaps and fails in most cases catastrophically. That is the reason to replace rod rigging or switch to wire at or before the 20 year mark or so (or sooner if it is a heavily raced boat).
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