[quote=shortyfox][quote] Are you guys saying I should take an exacto-blade and cut the plastic off? [/quote]
A new boat? I would say do not cut the plastic off. It protects your sails. I'm the one who originally brought up this subject, and I've found no shortage of conflicting opinions. I had a long talk with one of the guys at Murray's Water-sports and his experience with boat rigging set me straight, (kind of). He said the new techniques for coating the wires are far superior in that the adhesion of the plastic is far better at preventing water mitigation. Older rigging that has cracks in the plastic from being brittle, possibly from long exposure to UV rays should be replaced right away especially if there is evidence of rust seeping out. In that case I would be inclined to cut the plastic off, just to see what's going on in there. Sailors that are one hundred per cent performance- minded would probably prefer bare wires because they would have miniscule less wind wind resistance. I made it a point to look at all the beach cats in a mast up storage facility and most of them had plastic coated wires. And sure enough, some of the really old ones had cracks in the plastic with rust stains. So, the bottom line for me is as long as the plastic looks new and there are no cuts in it or rust stains, I'm going to not worry about it.[/quote]
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