Subject

Haven't done any serious cable design for many years.

That said, cables have their applications but are designed with
serious safety factors applied.

The weakest point of the cable design is the termination and/or the
splice.

In addition, hidden corrosion at the termination also weakens the
cable system over time.

One of the biggest unknows in cable design is fatigue failure due to
vibration induced by the winds.

Just ask any electrical power distribution company why they have all
those funny looking things hanging on their cables in what appear to
be unusual positions.

(One of my fraternity brothers was chief engineer for a company that
helped solve many of the cable fatigue proplems.)

Those same fatigue failure problems apply to sailboat rigging.

Bottom Line..................................
There is a hell of a lot we don't know about what happens to a cable,
when loaded, thus BIG saftey fsctors are required.

Lew