The shrouds on my boat have apparently stretched over the years and now I have no rig tension at all. They appear to be 3.5mm wire (the measurement with a caliper is 3.48mm or .144in). I have been trying to shorten them and although I have been able to get 3.5mm ferrules, I cannot find anyone who has a crimping tool that will do wire that big. Everyone at our club seems to have the type which is two metal sections that are forced together by tightening bolts, and have circular holes in them for the ferrules & wire; these seem to only go up to 3mm.
The shrouds appear to have been designed never to come off - the top ends have a hard-eye inside the mast, around a bolt through the mast, but the hard eyes must have been put on after the wire was threaded through the mast probably before the top section of the mast was put on. This means that it is impossible to get the shrouds off to take them anywhere, and replacing them will be very hard.
So I'm kind of stuck. Do I hunt around for a 3.5mm crimping tool? Is it possible to use anything else? or should I attempt to remove the old shrouds, get some 3mm wire and try to crimp them into the mast myself (will probably require removing the jib-halyard block and threading the shouds out of there before trying to hook the bolt through them...)
Before you start, however much I might like it, a new fancy mast is not an option...
The shrouds appear to have been designed never to come off - the top ends have a hard-eye inside the mast, around a bolt through the mast, but the hard eyes must have been put on after the wire was threaded through the mast probably before the top section of the mast was put on. This means that it is impossible to get the shrouds off to take them anywhere, and replacing them will be very hard.
So I'm kind of stuck. Do I hunt around for a 3.5mm crimping tool? Is it possible to use anything else? or should I attempt to remove the old shrouds, get some 3mm wire and try to crimp them into the mast myself (will probably require removing the jib-halyard block and threading the shouds out of there before trying to hook the bolt through them...)
Before you start, however much I might like it, a new fancy mast is not an option...