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Chicago Yacht Rigging Inc. (773) 895 4324 sales@chicagoyachtrigging.com |
What I wanted for 88's new lines, was to be as light and efficient as possible while still being easy to handle, and with a reasonable lifespan. Since rigging is my business, I figured I could go all out and make the perfect halyards, even if they ended up being a bit of overkill. The main and jib are New England V100 (vectran core), which has been stripped to save weight (and windage on the jib) I wanted to stay light with the shackles, and used Tylaska's P4 polycarbonate spool shackles. To keep the halyards around for a while, I added back cover to the last 5' or so, so that the halyards wouldn't chafe at sheaves and exits, and also so they could be skyed to protect the uncovered portion completely from UV. The spin halyard is New England Endura Braid, stripped and recovered the same way as the other two. It has a stopper ball (the shields has a really odd halyard spectacle that can get jammed with a shackle) and a standard snap shackle with swivel. The topper is Endurabraid as well, 1/4" in size. All the halyards are 5/16". They are extremely low stretch, the small diameter runs very quickly over sheaves and they're quite light. With both sets of halyards handy, I wanted to quantify the weight difference. It was obvious that it would be lighter, but by how much? The old halyards weighed in at 13.5 lbs. All that wire adds up! The new set of lines came in at 7.5lbs, so in addition to being stronger and lower stretch, they took out nearly half the weight of the old set. Now, how much of a difference does this actually make for the boats performance? It's common to hear that removing 1lb of weight from the rig is just like adding 7lbs to the keel, without actually increasing the weight of the boat. What this means is that the righting moment (power of the keel to couteract the force of the wind on the sails) is increased, but without the added weight that extra lead would bring. I'm not a naval architect and wouldn't try and make a prediction of what that means on the course, but I do know I've had plenty of days racing where I'd love to have an extra 40lbs of keel! This particular upgrade was a best case scenario: the lines needed replacement, and they were so old that it was possible to make major improvements in all possible ways. The weight was reduced and the new lines are much stronger and lower stretch. For your boat, the gains may not be as large, but it's always smart boat prep to have good gear on board! |