LINE TAMERS
When it’s time to upgrade deck hardware, cruising sailors can reap the benefits of sailhandling gear developed for high-powered racing sailboats.
As a lifelong racing sailor, I’m well familiar with the go-fast, lightweight sailhandling hardware and line favored by serious buoy chasers. These come in myriad sizes and setups, but they often involve low-friction rings rather than blocks, clever use of Spectra (or other exotic and semiexotic materials) for strops (spliced loops), and freely articulating soft shackles to connect gear to the boat. While this evolution is partially bolstered by the advent of new rope-making fibers (see below), it’s also being driven by boatbuilders’ and consumers’ demands for lighter-weight and lower-cost equipment that looks cool and can handle big loads. Here’s a look at some of the benefits that they offer.
THE FUNDAMENTALS Let’s begin with sails and cordage. The past few decades have seen substantial evolution in the materials that are used to build cruising sails. While some sailors are still hoisting (relatively) stretchy Dacron sails, plenty of others have upgraded their inventory to low- or no-stretch sails that are made from Spectra or other exotic fibers that are woven or 3D-printed onto molds. Even some Dacron cruising sails are now being constructed using similar 3D-printing techniques to generate higher-performance, lower-stretch sails.
Likewise, there’s been a big jump in the availability of high-strength, low-diameter rope that replaces basic polyester lines which, by comparison, can be stretchy, thick and heavy. While there’s no question that these new sails and cordage offer much higher performance than the sails your grandparents bent onto their Hinckley Sou’wester, there’s also no question that these new materials put greater strain on your boat and its sailhandling equipment.
“The dynamic loading on all the gear and rigging is greater on boats with high-tech sails,” says Jim Andersen, Harken’s (harken.com) US sales manager. “There’s less shock absorption of such loading due to the more-stable sails and running rigging with minimal stretch.”
Others agree. “Shock loads are quite a bit higher with high-tech sails and with hightech fiber ropes,” says Alan Prussia, Ronstan’s (ronstan .us) commercial manager of marine products. Particularly, he points to Dyneema and Spectra, among other minimal-stretch materials. When upgrading an older boat, Prussia says, “decks need to be inspected to make sure the core is good structurally and that proper backing plates are used.”
Dealing with these loads and lower-diameter cordage isn’t typically problematic so long as owners work with their riggers and sailmakers to eliminate weak links. “It’s very