Preferred Spreader End Corrosion Prevention?

[Patrick_Seattle]

These instructions to install the Harken one say to wrap the shroud in electrical tape:
http://www.harken.com/pdf/4438.pdf

They might as well say, cut the wire here... Wire wrapped in electrical tape sounds like a recipe for corrosion to me.

I'm assuming I could have the roller on top of the spreader and put some UHMW tape on the upper surface of my spreader (which is painted with alexseal) to prevent it rubbing the spreader. Wonder if that would work out well.

[Robbie.g]

hi
i use what we buy as 'fender insert'.,it is a white thin-walled tube. We also use it to cover wire, in place of the plastic covered wire for lifelines , as here in nz; nz registered boats looking to go offshore and require cat.1 inspection, are not allowed 'normal' plastic covered wire.....
Not noticed any movement or loss of the isolators, like i said i hold the bits of tube in place with seizing wire over the tubing, and this seems to work.

[JChorlton]

Originally Posted by Robbie.g

hi
i use what we buy as 'fender insert'.,it is a white thin-walled tube. We also use it to cover wire, in place of the plastic covered wire for lifelines , as here in nz; nz registered boats looking to go offshore and require cat.1 inspection, are not allowed 'normal' plastic covered wire.....
Not noticed any movement or loss of the isolators, like i said i hold the bits of tube in place with seizing wire over the tubing, and this seems to work.

That's interesting ...so you're not allowed to use the plastic covered lifeline wire but then it's OK if you add segments of the tubing over the bare wire? The tubing must be a little bit more loose on the wire then ...and like that medium hardness polyethylene maybe.

[JChorlton]

Well, to be perfectly honest, Patrick, the amount of corrosion that could occur under that little of tape might be minimal as it probably would under a small seizing - although there's room for variance with how much tape one applies and how tightly it's taped. I think that I'd be a bit more concerned having a split metal washer sawing around the wire with every spin of the roller. If I had to install a roller I would probably go with small seizings of either stainless seizing wire or some sort of small stuff like tarred seine twine and then make a little split washer out of a bit of plastic to act as a bearing. I'm sure that the professional riggers on this forum probably have other opinions. Whatever you use to hold up the roller, it's still going to require maintenance (which was a consideration for me). Tape sticks for a while but most stuff degrades pretty rapidly with UV exposure.

You might find that the slippery tape works for you on some areas but I haven't tried it on spreader ends. I have found that any tape on spreader ends tends to get quickly worn away by the genoa and that the tape, in turn, tends to not be as gentle on the sail threads as I'd like it to be. Maybe I just don't use enough tact in my tacking.