Hi all,

I tested dyneema for the shrouds on my beachcat last season. The advantages are low price (dyneema vs. steel with swages), easy handling (can be spliced by myself, can be stored with small radius) and the theoretical adavantage of lower weight, if there is one.
The disadvantages are creep in case of dyneema (I had to retension the rigg every time, although I pretensioned the shrouds 10x during testing), bad balance between steel forstays and fibre shrouds (this is very specific to my boat with double forestays) and this bad feeling, that Tami describes.

The boat was all the time mast up on the beach, exposed to UV radiation and storms. I used covered (double braided dyneema). I switched back to steel, because I wanted to sail more and re-tension the shrouds less. The boat felt not different during sailing.
At the end there is no clear yes or no. In future there might be a fibre which costs less than steel (including swages) and will not creep. Then the decission will be clear.

Cheers,

Klaus