JEM Watercraft

craiggamesh wrote:

makenmend wrote:Preacher if the bend is not to acute you might try using the tubing normally used to hook up your icemaker(opaque 1/4'' dia)and spectra cable used on the Hobie brand sailsboats/kayaks.Iv'e used it on a couple of boats and works great. Tubing can be found at home depot/lowes and the spectra from Mariner Sails Dallas.
MM\

PS putting a lighter to the end of the tubing will cause it to bell out and make a nice watertight jiont where it passes through the hull.

I did something similar to this.

I used stainless steel downrigger wire for the cables in my Sabalo. I ran them through the 1/4 inch irrigation drip tubing from Home Depot. It was $4.99 for 100 feet. They enter the deck through little wooden "frog eyes" (the frog-eye idea I borrowed from Bemm's Sabalo build ). In each end of the tubing, I pushed in half of an "in-line" coupler used to attach two lines of tubing. This caused the end to bell out, and it added additional abbrasion resistance to the tubing.

It has worked very well for me and it was inexpensive.
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makenmend wrote:the 1st time I tried this I used stainless steel cable to, but in the constant high salt air environment(Cayman Islands) it didn't stand the test of time,with the spectra it did plus the low friction of the two components made the rudder action far superior.
MM

What is spectra?

I did all this (except for the coupler) with the rudder steering controls and it came out fine. The one additional thing I did was fill the tube with 90w oil.

preacher wrote: What is spectra?

High-strength steels have comparable yield strengths, and low-carbon steels have yield strengths much lower (around 0.5 GPa). Since steel has a density approximately equal to 7.8 kg/l, this gives strength-to-weight ratios for these materials in a range from 10 to 100 times higher than steel.

makenmend wrote:sorry been offline a few days, spectra is as pionted out a very strong braides cord. my 1st experience with it was on a Hobie rudder system,I obtained more from Mariner Sails in Dallas (not expensive) and it works!

MM

craiggamesh wrote:Spectra is also a name used for heavy braided fishing line.