As part of my refit before launching I tightened the guard wires which were dangerously loose.
More importantly the guardwires were non-compliant with Offshore racing rules because they were plastic-covered. I stripped the plastic off, and saw why the rules are as they are.

Stainless does not like being starved of air, and in many places PARTICULARLY where passing through the ferrules on the stanchions, significant discolouration had taken place.I am keeping a wary eye on it, and will see what develops.

275/30 "Cascada"

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Guardwires have been made of plastic-covered stainless wire for at least 30 years and I've never heard of any letting go due to corrosion. I think there's a long way to go between significant discolouration and failure.
Has anyone seen anything worse than discolouration?

Geoff Harwood P21/30 Cygnus (with 17 year old plastic coated guardwires!)

When I had Stainless Steel Rigging of Lymington fit the gates on Calypso - see http://www.sealasc.org.uk/maint...tions_for_Parker_325/335 

they recommended removing all the plastic coating as they had seen some very bad examples of rusting guardrails underneath such a coating.

I gave them the OK so they stripped off all the plastic, confirming what John said. There was a surprising amount of surface discolouration underneath. True they are not likely to fail but I think it's better to be safe than sorry.

Regards
Don Harvey
Web Master

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