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How to attach wire cable to shackle

PostPosted: Mon Jul 23, 2018 10:47 pm
by KenKorey
I have a Racelite vang plate on my boom from which I'd like to hang my vang. I know that I can purchase a stainless wire cable with a swaged ball end for attachment to the boom, but how do I hitch its unfinished end onto the shackle of the upper vang block? (I'm using a Barton series 2 with a stamped and formed U-shackle.)

Thanks in advance,
Ken

Re: How to attach wire cable to shackle

PostPosted: Tue Jul 24, 2018 12:19 am
by GreenLake
what's wrong with a thimble and that kind of double-bore metal collar that you squeeze? (Can't think of its name right now).

You'd want to read up on the specs for that configuration, but I can't see why that wouldn't work for your vang.

Re: How to attach wire cable to shackle

PostPosted: Tue Jul 24, 2018 12:28 am
by GreenLake
You should be able to get them in SS to avoid corrosion issues, and, if I read the specs correctly for "oval swaging sleeves" they should hold what the wire can. Your problem may be in getting tool strong enough; so if you have access to a shop that does rigging services, that would be where I'd take it.

Re: How to attach wire cable to shackle

PostPosted: Tue Jul 24, 2018 10:51 am
by jalmeida51
I used a nicropress fitting on my boom vang. You can buy them at West Marine and at most stores they have a bench swaging tool to use.
if swaged properly the nicopress is stronger than the stainless wire

I believe West's nicopress fittings are zinc plated over copper.

Re: How to attach wire cable to shackle

PostPosted: Thu Jul 26, 2018 6:12 pm
by KenKorey
Thanks to all who answered -- you helped a lot. I was about to order the sleeves, thimble and wire with a swaged ball, despite my still-unanswered appeal to my sailing club members for the loan of a swaging tool. (I'm two hours from the coast and nearly that far from Lake Champlain, where the nearest chandleries are.) But then I recalled that the Kenyon Spars page on the Rigright.com site offered a full range of spar accessories for the DS models and, sure enough, a completed vang wire pennant was available with swaged ball at one end and thimbled eye at the other. Just as well, I suppose, since all the swaged splices I've attempted with wire fencing had quite mixed results. Maybe it was the cheap vise grips :)