Right lay wire

[Stumble]

My sailmaker has been having some problems finding the right wire for a new staysail rig I am putting up. I checked my sources and came up blank to. So does anyone have a source for 1/4" 1x19 Stainless Steel Right hand lay wire? I don't really care if it is 304 or 316 but I do need 40 foot of it.

[csandys]

Curious, why does it have to be right hand lay? Is normal 1x19 left hand lay?

[Stumble]

The reason I need right hand lay is that the roller furler turns clockwise. So a left hand lay wire will open up as the drum spins. The 1x19 is just because it needs to be a very stiff wire in order to support the luf of the sail.

[csandys]

What happens when you roll up the sail counter clockwise?

[Brion Toss]

Hello,
That's a most unusual question. If the wire is somehow involved in furling, then it is unlikely to be a unit that you would want to use; there should be no torque on the wire for a conventional system, as there the foil rotates around the wire, and does not torque it. And even if this system somehow does involve torqueing the wire, 1x19 is not designed to support that kind of load. And even if it were, the core has the opposite lay, so it would unwind as the cover yarns got too darn tight. I really can't think of a good reason why the lay of the wire would matter here, even without considering that the sail could be wound up the other way.
This inevitably leads me to wonder what the sailmaker knows about rigging. Unless there's a factor that I'm missing -- and there may well be -- it sounds like you might want to do some independent research on the requirements of the furler. Start here if you like.
Fair leads,
Brion Toss

[Brian Duff]

There are small 'racing boat' furling units are used to rotate the wire that is the forestay while sailing. I dont like them , but they are widely in use.

Either way, I agree with Brion - the direction you twist the wire is mute.
I think this is because when twsiting you're unloading one half and loading the other half of the cable. Better hope there is a nice fat saftey factor for that kind of abuse!

call your rigger, he'd be happy to talk about this with you too.