Sand, galvanised forestays and sail hanks.

[Vtlli]

Hi to the community of riggers
As a new member here let me introduce myself. At current time I finishing to build 35ft steel gaff cutter which took for me eight years. Now I started works with rig. As a traditional boat I went for galvanised wire. I have to say big thanks to the book of Brion Toss, because it is leading me through whole process from choosing wire, splicing till tarring.
Anyway I have one unclear question about forestays. Recently I've got msg over FB from fellow boatbuilder who cruising now in Caribbeans. He says his galv forestays rusts very quickly down there due to wind filled with the very fine sand. And it sounds logical for me when sand or dust from land traps between stay and sail hanks and grinds off zinc from wire like sandpaper/oilstone. So I'm a bit puzzled now. How it possible to prepare forestays for (at least) twenty years life? I like the idea of extended life of galv rigging and do not want to go for ss forestays as it was advised at another forum.

Vitaliy

[Brian Duff]

hi there,

so long as you don't mind the rust staining and rust streaking, it sholdnt be a problem if the forestay rusts, as long as you sail often the hanks will wipe off the rust.. but i cannot think the forestay will last 20 years.. maybe if you are regular with coating of some products perhaps...

[Brion Toss]

Hello,
I think there might be a correlation/causation issue here. Sure, there might be fine sand there, and yes, the unserved wire might rust, but the two might not be related. Why bring in a dubious sandpaper mechanism when higher temperature and salinity can account for the problem? It has been a while since I looked, but in the past we've had some success with commercial coatings for wire. The trick is to find a supplier who will sell by the quart, instead of by the barrel. The stuff tends to be nasty, but pretty effective. The wire won't be immortal, but it will last longer. You might try contacting these folks: http://www.industrialpolymers.com/cu...kB6BoCtFzw_wcB. Maybe they'll steer you towards a distributor.
Fair leads,
Brion Toss

[Vtlli]

Thank you, gentlemen, for your input.
Now this matter seems for me more clear. Since my post here I searched lots of forums about this subject. And nobody has same problem. Unless few boats which came to Caribbean from the North (UK, Canada, Ireland) with poor preparations (as owners stated themselves).
At present I finishing splicing for all stays and have some leftovers. So I decided to make splice on the one end of leftover and another live clear. In emergency/ faulty case I'll be able to make another second splice at desired length and will have new stay.
Is there alternative to bronze hanks which are more kind to the wire?
(from my own experience with bronze: Before starting splicing works I made spike out of phosphor bronze thinking this metal is soft enough and will be very kind to the wire. After inserting few times into the wire spike was covered with deep scratches and those scratches damaged wire. So I sanded/polished bronze and left this spike to synthetic ropes and make another few spikes out of stainless which have no single scratch after whole job). Now I'm not so sure about bronze hanks from this point.

Vitaliy