Reefing lines BEST?

[svTOTEM]

Sorry - my kids were having a "moment" before I finished.

Vectran is a great, strong, low stretch fiber. With a cover or coating is perfectly fine in UV environments. That's why I was surprised at seeing Vectran in a rope cover. Maybe the fibers had a UV coating on them? I'm not sure if anyone makes Vectran sailcloth anymore; but it was tries many times, often with a UV resistant coating such as Tedlar. This created other problems, because of differential shrinkage rates, etc. Maybe someone has solved this?

[GMac]

Good golly what a busy bunch you have been.
You have the Spectra V's Dyneema pretty close, I must dig up that thingy for you.
Melting points are a bit high. Dyneema starts turning into a liquid at 150 degrees odd, it won't 'pour off' but starts to lose strength about then. Spectra is just a tad higher.

Vectran's UV isn't that crash hot really but it's abrasion resistance is. I lightly coated my which will help a bit, a better coating would help a lot more but I was in a rush, one of those last minute things you know.

I am in the enviable position of having a boat which is actually called by or Inland Revenue Dept a 'test bed' so I don't pay for my ropes, the company does and it's all R&D. So I can play without the cost most have. I also get many cunning plans which to be honest most are just silly and stupid in the light of day. So the chances I'll come up with another rope long before the current ones are past any used by date, are very high.

I'd expect to get many years before it becomes an issue really. The Vectran is not a structural member of the rope (the Dyneema is) so it's really only stopping chafe.

But it will not be one of those ropes we see that are attached to statements like "It was on the boat when I got it 19 years ago".

[Weyalan]

I use 1/2" double braid polyester for my reefing lines, which works fine. I have the old fashioned reefing system where the line only reefs the down the leech, and you have to manually pull down the luff to get the reefing ring onto a horn on the goose neck. As a general rule, once I have the reef (or reefs) in, I tend to add a "snotter" at the clew reef, as a back-up to the reef line.