[hnash53]

The wire is probably plastic covered like lifelines. The actual wire is a small diameter flexible wire but the plastic covering stiffen it. The plastic covering is to prevent staining the sail with rust spots of bare wire. This was a common way of making the luff of a sail before the advent of the near zero stretch 'magic' line. with near zero stretch. Without the wire or 'magic line' overzealous tensioning the luff of the sail would quickly stretch sail into a mess.

Thanks for the additional info. Do you know of a way to rehab this sail? Is it feasible to pull the "magic line" out and replace it with the "no stretch" line available today?

 

[roverhi]

The 'magic line I was referring to is the new Dyneema/etc very low stretch line. The buried cable is probably stiff because of the plastic coating. It will be seized to the sail in several places on the luff. Might be able to locate all those places, cut the seizing and pull it out. If the wire is encased in a dacron sheath cutting the stitching on the tape may allow you to remove the cable. In any case would bet a sailmaker could fix your problem in a jiffy though that wouldn't be free.

 

[hnash53]

The 'magic line I was referring to is the new Dyneema/etc very low stretch line. The buried cable is probably stiff because of the plastic coating. It will be seized to the sail in several places on the luff. Might be able to locate all those places, cut the seizing and pull it out. If the wire is encased in a dacron sheath cutting the stitching on the tape may allow you to remove the cable. In any case would bet a sailmaker could fix your problem in a jiffy though that wouldn't be free.

Many thanks for that, rover. That's what I'll do.