Letter: Wire Rope

To the editor: If my barge has winches, I am using a barge fastener completely different from rigging. I am using rope (wire rope). If I am going to use wire rope as a barge fastener, my barge has to have timber timberheads and/or wide diameter deck fittings not otherwise specified. I have to have deck fittings that are designed to receive rope. I have to have “rope fittings.” If my barges do not have rope fittings,  I can not use a wire rope barge fastener. There are no two ways about it.

I know almost the entire river community would disagree with me. I have been preaching this unsuccessfully for more than 10 years. Wire rope is an advanced, complex and dynamic fastener with its own set of rules and does not have one thing in common with rigging wire.

Matt Collins

Shoals, Ind.