The Cruising Sailor’s Argument for High-tech Fibers
We’re not racers. A few ounces doesn’t matter to us, so why should we be interested in Dyneema, or any of the other popular...
Line Stowage Bags and Hooks
Sailboat cockpits will happily collect spaghetti if we let them, each sheet, halyard, and new control line adding to the confusion. The chaos is...
PS Advisor: Rope Coatings to Prolong Cordage Life
New lines run fast. They fly through tackles and tangles fall right out. But they are also hard to hold in our hands, on...
Designing a Dump Line for the Multihull Mainsheet
Many of Practical Sailor's previous reports have explored the risks of multihull capsize, and what sailors and designers are doing to reduce this risk, which, though generally low, increases as designers push for more speed. One detail that we have not explored in great depth is the engineering of a “dump line,” which allows the helmsman (or automatic system) to quickly release the mainsheet in case a capsize is imminent. Simon Angus, a Canadian sailboat designer and builder who recently launched a new 40-foot catamaran that fits into a shipping container, has a manual system that involves the clever use of Ronstan’s constrictor textile rope clutches, which allows a person at the helm to quickly release the mainsheet with the swift tug on a parachute cord.
Years Later, Mast Mate Still Riding High
Mast steps are a great help when going aloft, but they add weight where it hurts most (aloft), and halyards love to get stuck behind them. One alternative is the Mast Mate webbing ladder, which hoists on your mainsail track.
Mailport: anchoring etiquette, stern-tied boats, and wind generators
I really appreciated the article Anchoring in Crowded Harbors (see Practical Sailor, June 2019). The difficult and critical part is always estimating distances, and the guides you gave (two-to-three mast heights, using fractions of a nautical mile, etc.) can be difficult to do accurately in a crowded harbor with the sun setting, with some of that information available only at the helm, and multiple boats moving to anchor. As a bow hunter, I am…
Overheating Ropes
We have a love-hate relationship with nylon rope. When it comes to absorbing shock, it offers the best available combination of strength, elasticity, and economy. On the downside, it is sensitive to UV, abrasion when wet, has a low working load limit, and is weakened over time by internal wear.
Adding a Polyester Cover to Dyneema Single Braid
Extremely low friction allows Amsteel and other high molecular weight polyethylene (HMPE) lines to run like lightening through low friction rings. Unfortunately, they also run right through cleats, jammers, and your hands. If a jammer did hold-and it wont-the load would probably exceed the capacity of any device that matched the lines tiny size.
Splice Failure Linked to Fatality
On the 4th of September 2015, Andrew Ashman was killed during an accidental jibe, when the boom delivered a fatal injury to the base of his neck. The boat, CV21 Ichor Coal, had been running in strong conditions, and yawing allowed the wind to get on the wrong side of the mainsail, as occasionally happens. A preventer was rigged, but a strop securing a low friction ring turning block near the bow failed, allowing the boom to cross the cockpit unrestrained. On such highly engineered boats, how did this happen?
A Sure Way to Secure the Boom
When the wind really blows, the pleasant chiming of a marina takes on a different character. Above the howling of the wind is the Devils Tattoo, the racket of one hundred poorly-secured halyards hammering against aluminum. Booms creak from side-to-side, and some pound against stays. Workers are distracted and anyone living aboard wishes his neighbors had taken a few small steps to preserve the peace, not to mention their rig.