From another thread I think this maybe a discussion thread all of its own

Having been a bit disappointed with wire stays ( weight, non adjustability, hard on the body when bounced into, tendancy to kink when derigging amongst other things )I've started using D12 for the main stays and trapeze wires. Seems to work really well but does tend to " stretch " a little when first made and you really must follow manufacturers guidelines when splicing ( as I found out when my trapeze let go . Has all sorts of advantages mainly being 1/4 the weight of wire and stronger for the same diameter, and what I really like is that you can adjust the length to your hearts desire ( I'm even considering doing away with adjusters as once you have your boat dialled in, how often do you change mast rake ). Don't be put off by the splicing as it really only takes minutes per eye. To date I have had only positives and no negatives. For anybody building and prototyping rigs etc it must be a real winner. Longetivity seems as good as expected, I've had a front stay and bridle in use for over 2 years now and there doesn't seem any real wear or degradation of the rope.

creep, stretching (need to adjust the rigging on the water), fatigue (especially where our stays bend around a rotating mast), difficulty with terminals/eyes, lack of easy adjustment and longevity vs. cost has been the reasons quoted.
I like the idea of synthetic rigging, so I am hoping for positive reports from you

How did you rig the shrouds and ensure adjustability?

Interesting negatives and the usual ones. Creep shouldn't be a problem as yes you will get minimal creep but your adjusters should take care of that. My biggest problem with creep and stretch so far is that the line is so under stressed it takes a few sails to really tighten all the weaves up ( the 3mm doesn't seem to have the same problem as 3.5mm I've been using ). I'm thinking of some way to prestretch the rope in a hydraulic pipe bender.
Up until now I have used a standard adjuster on the rear stays and multi loop forestay to bridle line to take up any slack when rigging, if you fit a steel wire thimble in the eyes they work exactly as a steel wire loop ( I'll take a couple of piccies over the weekend ). However I'm tempted to do away with the rear adjusters as the rope is so easily respliced up a few mm that once you have your boat dialled in, do you really readjust on the water.

I like the D12 around my carbon mast as its soft and doesn't wear away the even softer carbon, from my experiance of trying to cut it with a knife it is very wear resistant and I would almost say that it is pretty unlikely to get cut on anything that another boat could through at it in a collision. Equally the old nutmeg of what about in the boatpark, wire is probably even easier to cut with a good set of wire snips, D12 is really tough to cut unless you have the right equipment ( kevlar cutting scissors )

Cost is a non issue, each stay cost me about £ 16.00 and it is as adjustable as I like, a wire stay has to be made by the local chandler and is a one time operation, once the ferrules have been crimped you cannot alter the length.

Any more for comments, I haven't yet had any safety issues raised ?. My gut feeling about this is that the reason why we don't use it more for stays is that we have always used steel wire so therefore it is still the best traditional way of doing it.

My impression was that any synthetic line under tension would be alot easier to cut then when it is not under tension.

Actually I'm using this trick to get nice sharp endings on my lines.

But lets test it with D12. Tensioning a piece of it tightly and then make a cutting movement with a sharp knife. Alot of lines will be surprisingly easy cut in halves

Wouter

Wouter,

I agree with you, D12 under tension will probably cut easily. I am considering it for a set of shrouds on my F16

However, I am not so sure it will cut easily when not under tension, so at the moment, I am not going to use it for trapeze lines.

There are plenty of big boats using PBO for forestays now. So much lighter than SS, from 2-3 guys carrying it to being easily handled with 1 person. Anyone tried it on cats yet? I've heard of some dinghies using it.

Hi Ncik,

Yes we are using PBO on A-class and it works very well. If you want information about please contact us on info@catamaranparts.nl we can make this for you. We can make PBO rigging for all types of catamarans.

Regards,
Hans

Ncik,

Since you're in Aussie, try Macca.


Link to discussion on the A cat forum.
http://p105.ezboard.com/faclasscatamaranforumfrm2.showMessage?topicID=126.topic