Jim, on the thread I linked, mentioned changing from bare stainless cable to teflon-coated increased the life from 2 years to 7.
After 7 years, even the coated stainless was corroding horizontal from the ends, and also, the teflon coating wasn't very abrasion resistant, mosty where it was exposed to your feet.
Could get technical from my metallurgy profession, but simply, drawn stainless wire loses some of its corrosion resistance compared to other wrought stainless forms.
Dug back to find and crop this photo of the last trip on the teflon-coated stainless cable.
You can see multiple rust spots beneath the coating.
Though this is where I expected it to eventually break - inspected and seriously considered replacing it before this trip - it broke on the drive home at the rudder yoke connection from road vibration, though still probably compounded by corrosion beneath the coating.
Hoping not to do the spectra again, and I also added a continuous rudder loop to help protect it from being stepped on in the cockpit - I got the idea from Hobie.
The spectra works better if you can keep it under constant tension - added bungee in the continuous loop for that.
(and rigged my bungee so I could relax it for storage)
OUTLAW wrote:...
Do I need cable guards to keep from cutting into the plastic? What do you use for terminal connection?
I’m using my foot pedals to steer...
here's an example end connection
Used an anchor bend - actually, a
round turn with two half hitches - to connect to round hole in the pedal,
and seized the spectra with polyethylene/acrylic tape - it gets one more wrap together after I cut (and burn) the tag
The PE/acrylic tape sticks like crazy to itself, and the glue cures even stronger, so a base wrap before you tape stuff together is always smart - this tape is really thin and strong.
I looked at my knot again
that is an
anchor bend
though sheet bend and round turn with two half hitches are knots everyone should know
and protected that knot with a deep-sea rigging sleeve (crimp protector) - can't see it, but the loop to bungee in the upper right uses a nylon deep-sea thimble, which also works great
another example terminal connection using cable knarp and protecting the spectra with the PE tape base wrap.
this connection is also adjustable, sliding the taped spectra in the knarp, e.g., for adjusting rudder center
these spectra connections have held up for a half-dozen trips since I made the switch, and I think they'll keep going.
I'm pretty sure the spectra-over nylon thimble connection uses aluminum deep-sea crimps over PE-tape-base-wrapped spectra.
I know I have a tag end around where I first tried the crimp sleeves - if I have time later today, will dig it out for a photo.