Emile,
I have used Sta-lok, Norseman, swage and Castlok fittings. I have just
looked at using the Hi-mod also. The Norseman is my preferred mechanical
fitting and the Castlok from Loos in Florida is on my do not use list. The
only difference between the Norseman and the Sta-Lok is the Norseman has one
extra part, a cap that goes on top of the ends when you assemble the body.
My preference is just by force of habit and the look (I think the Norseman
is pretty) of the fittings. I think the two fittings are equal in terms of
strength. The Hi-mod is the newest one on the market and it?s the easiest to
fit, but has no track record. I never want to be on the bleeding edge of
technology. Suncore in the United States imports the Hi-mod.
The real question is the strength of the fittings. Hull University in
Scotland did some test pulls for the manufacturer of Hi-Mod and they didn?t
make much of the results, it didn?t make them look to good. Quality Testing
Inc in Baton Rough, LA did some testing on Norseman and they failed in two
tests at 69 and 80 percent of the wire strength. The benchmark swage fitting
they used failed at 107 percent of the rated strength of the wire.
I think that the mechanical fittings are strong enough and have the
advantage of being reusable. The down side is that they are heaver, bulkier
and coast more then swage fittings with some loss of strength. I will only
use swage fittings on my own boat, but part of that thinking is because I
have both a hydraulic swager and a roll swage machines that will swage up to
5/16? wire. When I travel those machines go with me and I get income from
doing repair work in some of the more out of the way places. It?s hard for a
yachtsman to find a rigger or wood shipwright in Gambia or Senegal so I have
the perfect captive market.
All the best,
Robert Gainer
