We are so shamed to admit what we are about to admit that we really don’t want to put this on the website.

But in the interest of masts remaining standing the world over, we must pass on this vital information regarding assembling Navtec Norseman fittings.

You won’t find these images anywhere else on the internet. We looked and couldn’t find any anywhere. So here they are.

After we noticed the wire slipping out of the upper Norseman fitting on our forestay, and considering the advice of Navtec was to take the fitting apart and examine it, we lowered the headstay with accompanying furling gear down to the dock once more.

We dreaded taking these fittings apart, since they were so nicely Loktited and sealed with Life Caulk. To unthread the fitting, we heated it with a propane torch for a minute or two. Then — happily — with two wrenches the threads were untite and came right undone. We were further happy to discover that the Life Caulk hadn’t cured yet (it was about a week after we’d sealed the fittings and this stuff takes 7-10 days to cure, depending on temperature and humidity).

We wiped off as much excess Life Caulk as we could. Horrors! The ends of the rigging wire were not wrapped neatly around the cone at all. They were kind of splayed out, so that there was no way the ends would fit neatly into the narrow top of the fitting, which is supposed to hold them all neat kind of like Chinese finger-cuffs.

Clearly, we had taken the Norseman installation instructions way too literally:

Installation Step F: Once the two pieces have been screwed together 2 or 3 turns, the terminal can be completely tightened by turning the end fitting. DO NOT OVERTIGHTEN, this will not improve the performance of the fitting and may result in damage to the screw threads…. As soon as the resistance increases the fitting is tight enough and should not be tightened further.

So, we had literally hand tightened this top fitting until it wouldn’t screw together any further. When we first tightened the fitting, we examined the wire threads around the cone and thought they looked pretty snug. But, having done an exhaustive and unsuccessful Google search for what the wire is actually supposed to look like when it is nicely wrapped around the cone we still weren’t really sure what we were after.

So this time, we grabbed two nice long wrenches and TIGHTENED the fittings together. There was resistance of course, but when they were tightened enough the resistance really began. After disassembling the fitting and examining this time, it was very clear that we had done it right.

Take a close look, you won’t find these images anywhere else on the internet.

A fully formed wire around a Norseman cone:

Another photo of the fitting going together, note nice and snug wires: