mainsheet

What would any of you recommend for a new mainsheet?

Trey Brown. <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />

Salsa, been two years now on the H16, Rick's right, great stuff.

just don't forget the chips <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" /> <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

Salsa on the H-17
Bzzz on the H-16
Swiftcord on the Tiger
Marstron on the H-14

I like the Salsa best - after it's broken in a bit (too slippery when new)

Bzzz is a close 2nd.

Swiftcord is nice, but $$$ and it wears too fast.

Marstron is cheap, hard on the hands and wears out way too fast.

I can sell 8mm Maffioli Evolution Swiftcord at £3.50/m converting to $6.94 Thats a really competitve price here in the UK as it normally retails at around the £4.15 mark. How does that compare to your US prices?

Annapolis Performance Sailing
8 mm Swiftcord: $2.01 / ft = $6.50 / m

Cheaper if you get it from their sale bin.

Robline racing sheet.

Best stuff ever.

Switched to 5/16" Salsa on my H-17. Works great, after two regattas. West Marine, about $1.00 ft.

Caleb

Thanks for all the input so far.

I like the looks of several material mentioned and I'll need to handle them to decide.

What about diameter?

3/8" or 5/16"?
8mm or 9mm?

Hi all,

is there any rational reason, why a main sheet should contain dyneema?. On large boats with winches I understand it, but on a beach cat... Diameter would be around 8mm or more and you will not pull with more than 50kg on it, which is 1/30 of the breaking load of a simple polyester 8m sheet. Stretch would be about 8%*1/30 = nothing, you will sail it anyway from the hand and not cleated... So why dyneema <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif" alt="" />
I use simple plain 8m polyester, it doesn't kink, holds in the cleat and on the ratchet, but it doesn't look Gucci.

What about the spi sheet? Here I looked around for the lightest stuff for 8mm diameter and not water absorbing. I found 8mm life line (the yellow - red stuff), easy to splice, light and with 0.70€/m also cheap.

Is there any other property of dyneema (other than strngth and low stretch)?

Cheers,

Klaus

Light weight, low water absorbancy.

Polyester soaks up water like a sponge.

Bear in mind most mainsheets are 8:1 or even 10:1 so your 50 kilo's now equals 400-500kilo's.

On a two man boat where the crew has 2 hands to use (and legs), you may see more like 100x8 kilo's!

Ouch! West Marine? What about www.OnLineMarineStore.com right here on this site?

As for size, since Salsa is so easy on the hands I use 1/4" (6mm) on the Wave and F16.., really runs through the blocks easy. I would never go to 3/8" though,
Rick

Do you mean https://store.catsailor.com/ Rick?

6mm Salsa from Online Marine Store is $.97 per foot.

https://store.catsailor.com/pc/viewPrd.asp?idcategory=550&idproduct=15783

From Big Box Marine it's $1.15

http://www.westmarine.com/webapp/wcs/sto...;classNum=11452

This is just one small example of how your little guy can save you some dough on your sailing parts. I'm surprised more people haven't learned this yet.

Hi Dazz,

on a non-cascading system the sheet load is never higher than the input load. The 8x or 10x load is at the shackle of the blocks.

In terms of weight and adsorbed water, it is probably in the order of a few hundred gramms. On a spi sheet, this is an argument of course. However PP material is even lighter (at same diameter) than pure dyneema, doesn't take water as well, so for a spi sheet PP should be the material of choice?

Cheers,

Klaus

Ouch! West Marine?

Sorry Rick. I needed it right away, it was available and on sale in Seattle.

Caleb

My Bad.

Its a distrubuted load, there may be 400 kilo's of load on the rope, but its shared by 8 peices of rope.

The biggest selling point for me, as rick has pointed out is the texture.

can anyone bring up http://www.onlinemarinestore.com/ for me its a dead stick.

Hey Matt,

Can you elaborate on the differences that make one line better for one boat model than another?

Mike

I'm using 1/4" Yalelight Competition (8:1, Nacra 5.8). It is slightly fatter than most 1/4" lines. I love it, it runs through the blocks well and doesn't absorb water.

I find that the polypro/dyneema single braids (Apex, Slasa, Conception etc.) don't cleat well until they are broken in.

On the Tornado we use Maffioli Swift Cord (5/16") for the spinnaker and run one or two rachet blocks. While it does start to look worn pretty fast, in reality this is just hte "fuzz" tufts in the line that aid in t he grip. I've used the same line for several years now, with multiple 10 day long regattas. Holds up pretty well. I like the grip level of swift cord.

I also use a 3mm coverless spectra tapered out to more 5/16 switft cord for the mainsheet (9:1 non-cascaded). Works great and much easier on the hands than harder traditional lines.

Not really - just trying different stuff out and that's what's ended up on each of the boats.

I'll actually use the 16's mainsheet on the 14 when I race it. The Marstron is just too nasty - 100% polypropylene. Looks great when it's new, but it wears quickly and gets "prickly". I gave away a 50' length of brand new Marstron at our regatta because I knew I'd never use it.

There's not much difference in feel between the Bzzz and Salsa. I bought the Bzzz mainsheet from Rich McVeigh at the 2006 H-16 NAs for $20. He didn't like it because it was too light and washed off the tramp too easily. I think he uses Robline or Paraloc now.

Richie is picky about his lines.

You can pick your friends and you can pick your sheets, but... <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif" alt="" />

That's right, I forgot how often Rich changes his lines (or at least, the type of line)...

I've been using the Rooster stuff. It doesn't absorb water, but does like to go off the tramp. It also tends to kink, and sometimes doesn't run smoothly in light air. Grip is OK. All in all, I'd like to find something better.

Mike

Having tried most every different line and line combination out there - fat, thin, fuzzy, slick, 12 strand, double braid, poly, dacron, vectran, spectra, stripped, spliced, diced, smothered and covered, etc. (it's nice to have a warehouse full of string...)

What works for me is 8mm Robline Racing Sheet spliced to 5mm 12-strand spectra on the 10:1 F18 mainsheet. On the A-cat I use the same products but downsize to 6mm Racing Sheet spliced to 3mm 12-strand spectra.

I tend to like the smaller diameter lines, however some of my customers really like the 9mm racing sheet on the handling end.

Interestingly, per General Rule 16.2 the IHCA class rules, tapered sheets are illegal except as allowed within the specific rules for the following boats:

Hobie Dragoon
Hobie FX-One
Hobie Tiger
Hobie 20
Hobie Fox
Hobie 16 (for the kite only)

They are also specifically outlawed by Hobie Wave Rule 5.1.

Does that really make any sense?

Mike