Furling Line

[Dockhead]

Originally Posted by Kenomac

Our staysail furling line is Dyneema in two sizes spliced seamlessly together. I just sent the old, worn line to West Marine rigging and a brand new line magically appeared one day in the mail. I believe the splices cost less than $40, certainly not worth the trouble to learn how to do it myself. The length of line heading from the brake to the furler is 7mm braid covered Dyneema spliced to 12mm braid covered Dyneema, which is the part we handle.

Just tell the rigging people what you want. I'm surprised that your's didn't come in two sizes. It's easy to furl the staysail by hand in most cases without the need of a winch, no need for electric or hydraulics. For the yankee we have a Rechmann hydraulic furler.

That's not spliced - it's 12mm double braid dyneema with the cover stripped.

[Kenomac]

Originally Posted by conachair

Shows how many different kinds of sailors there are, that's like don't learn to cook when you can order a pizza or get someone else to tie your knots. Each to their own.

Exaclty. The kind out enjoying ourselves cruising the Med six months of the year vs the grouchy old men looking to start an argument whilst fiddling with knots.

[Kenomac]

Originally Posted by Dockhead

That's not spliced - it's 12mm double braid dyneema with the cover stripped.

I was told it was a splice, looks like a well-done splice.

Whatever.... it works.

[conachair]

Dockhead, another thought - before full time liveaboard I did decades commercial rigging so safe working loads etc are very familiar territory, on my little boat I didn't give strength a second thought as the factor of safety is through the roof - you have a biggun so the temptation would be to rustle something up then put a couple of tonnes on it for a few days to check all is well. If that line goes then things could get much more exciting than you would like in an instant, also that kind of splicing isn't common place so I would automatically trust someone else's work and you'll be very unlikely to get a proof load test from a sailing rigger. WIth your LX winches should be easy enough to rig some block and fall system to do a decent load test on whatever splice you go for, as you know dyneema can slip slowly under load ...

[Dockhead]

Originally Posted by Kenomac

I was told it was a splice, looks like a well-done splice.

Whatever.... it works.

Yes, my guess was wrong. If my eyes are not deceiving me, that's two pieces of double braid with covers intact. No idea how they did that. That is what I originally wanted.

[Dockhead]

Originally Posted by Kenomac

Exaclty. The kind out enjoying ourselves cruising the Med six months of the year vs the grouchy old men looking to start an argument whilst fiddling with knots.

Fiddling with knots is fun!

No grouchy old men in this thread, praise the Lord.

I'm not a "grouchy old man." I'm an "irascible senior citizen."

[Alan Mighty]

Originally Posted by Dockhead

Yes, my guess was wrong. If my eyes are not deceiving me, that's two pieces of double braid with covers intact. No idea how they did that. That is what I originally wanted.

Try New England Ropes constant diameter end-to-end splice in double braid:

http://www.neropes.com/fileadmin/Teu...d_Constant.pdf

Constant diameter splices in double braided polyester lose some strength, compared to 'fat' splices. That's likely the reason for the whipping (? I don't see enough detail in the photo to be sure it is whipping. It might be a sleeve?) shown in Kenomac's photo.

[Kenomac]

Originally Posted by Dockhead

Fiddling with knots is fun!

But sometimes it's worth paying a pro to do the job right.

I couldn't care less how the guy did it.

BTW: Dolphin Sails got back to me, our yankee is 140% and the staysail is cut very flat. We use the staysail often.

[svHyLyte]

Originally Posted by Dockhead

My headsail furlers are NOT continuous line furlers. Furlex 400S X 2.

Then one would not do end-to-end splices, would one. Just a single length of line.

My mainsail furler IS a continuous line furler, and it's about time to change out the furling line, so I might try this rope.

And, of course in this instance, the end-to-end splice without changing the line diameter would come in handy, no?

[Dockhead]

Originally Posted by svHyLyte

Then one would not do end-to-end splices, would one. Just a single length of line.

One would, if one is trying to use two different diameters, as per the original post.

Originally Posted by svHyLyte

And, of course in this instance, the end-to-end splice without changing the line diameter would come in handy, no?

Indeed, as I said.

[conachair]

Originally Posted by Dockhead

One would, if one is trying to use two different diameters, as per the original post.

One did, and glad of it, works well. Go for it.

[Dockhead]

Now another plan presents itself.

I just received 43 meters of German 12mm racing dyneema, from Gleistein, a reel end which I snagged for under a buck a foot.

Wow, what nice rope!! I am surprised. Really tightly woven, tight fitting cover, nice hand.

It's cheaper than any 10mm I've run across, and the seller has more of it.

Maybe I should just use this and strip the cover? I hate to leave bare dyneema out in the sun, but this is such massive overkill in terms of strength (100% of the strength is in the core), maybe it doesn't matter?

Or maybe I can just coat it with something?

What do you guys think?

[sailah]

On my 37' Dickerson I took the old 3/8" double braid and kept about 25' of it. Used what I cut off for new dinghy painter.

I spliced in ~30' of new 3/16" Dyneema that fills the drum.

Works great, cheap and the original double braid is easy on your hands.

I used this video on how to do the splice

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aohG...FZOg7A&index=9

[Kenomac]

Why not just order a tapered dyneema furling line from West Marine like I did, and get exactly what you want? Done right.

[Dockhead]

Originally Posted by svHyLyte

Then one would not do end-to-end splices, would one. Just a single length of line.



And, of course in this instance, the end-to-end splice without changing the line diameter would come in handy, no?

Originally Posted by Kenomac

Why not just order a tapered dyneema furling line from West Marine like I did?

Because West Marina is in Ammurrica, and my boat is in Finland

My "rope pusher" in the UK does great splicing work cheaply, but I don't always have time to wait for him to find cordage and do the work. Besides that, I do like to do my own splices when I can -- I think it's a useful skill and I think it's good to keep those skills up.


Case in point -- last summer in the middle of the North Sea, the end-to-end splice in my mainsail furling line parted. Boy would I have been SOL if I hadn't known how to resplice it, and had to wait to be near a professional to have it redone. I was far from land and didn't even have Internet connection to look for a YouTube video on how to do it. Good thing I knew how to do such splices!