: Brian

: Hey, say it ain't so abt the bicycle fittings! I would have thought w/ all
: the off road stuff out there now that there are some at least corrosion
: resistant fittings.

The cables (inner wires) are typically stainless, but the housings and end fittings aren't. They work fine for typical cycling conditions where all they have to deal with is freshwater spray, but they probably will not hold up to saltwater immersion.

: And interesting simple attachm't to the skeg, altho you'd have to carefully
: design and limit the throw so that not too much angular movem't happens.

Definitely. The skeg system on my boat has 3"+ of actuator travel and it connects around the mid point of the skeg. I'll probably duplicate the design on the wood boat I'll be starting soon.

: Can you work harden stainless?

Bending stainless wire work hardens it, but a single bend cycle will not create any problems. It's important to position the cable fitting properly in relation to the hole in the skeg so that the wire is not flexed excessively in use. The optimum position should be pretty easy to figure out.

: But your discussion abt the round knob actuators brings to mind another
: possibility. Aside from the cable cantilever benefits of the previous
: paragraph, what if, you had a rotating attachm't at both the housing and
: the skeg. Say a short (1/2" long) plastic cylinder cast into the
: housing, cable hole drilled(sideways) thru into box (therefore rotates and
: fairly well sealed), and something similar for the skeg too. Then skeg
: could be deployed thru greater angles assuming the cable is stiff enough.

Actually, I wasn't the one who brought up the idea of using a rotating knob. In order to do that, you really need to use a dual, pull-pull cable system. On end of the cable pulls the skeg down and the other pulls it up. Effectively, you're using a loop of cable that's secured to a rotating knob at one end and a wheel on the skeg at the other. It should work fine, but it's more complex than a single cable system.