Preview: Worldwide Classic Boat Show Presentation – the Virtues of Synthetic Rigging
* * *
OffCenterHarbor.com is a membership website with over 1,000 videos and articles
on boat handling, repairs, maintenance, boat building, dream boats and more.
Sign up above to learn more, and get 10 of our best videos.
* * *
July 6, 2023
Email this Video to a FriendIan Weedman and Jen Bates, master riggers, explain the advantages of synthetic fiber over steel rigging systems and talk about its numerous benefits for modern and classic boats. They also explain how Brion Toss Rigging, being skilled in the traditional, is so well versed to adapt the traditional skills to the modern fiber.
“Wire rigging is, after all, the attempt of a previous generation to do with wire what they had previously done with rope. A couple of hundred years later, we are just running things the other way.” – Brion Toss.
Get Free Videos Start Free Trial Members Sign In
Comments, Thoughts or Suggestions?You can leave a comment or question for OCH and members below. Here are the comments so far…
Leave a Comment
You must be logged in to post a comment.
11 Responses So Far to “Worldwide Classic Boat Show Presentation – the Virtues of Synthetic Rigging”
or …
Karen Portch says:
I thoroughly enjoyed this presentation on the virtues of synthetic rigging. In 2011 we replaced all the standing rigging on our cruising timber Adams 13 with synthetic rigging even manufacturing our own terminators using oilamid. At the time we were residing in a marina and everybody seemed to have an opinion on this topic, more negative than positive, many yachties believing we would never be able to sell our boat if it had synthetic rigging. I am heartened by the fact that synthetic rigging is now much more commonplace on yachts than it was when we decided to use it. It has lived up to all expectations and will probably become the norm for standard rigging within my lifetime.
William McCaffrey says:
I have worked with Dyneema for many years in non-marine cases and have been very impressed. One benefit that wasn’t explained here is how easy (other than stretching) it is to splice and serve this rope. I keep several diameters on hand for all sorts of applications. I have had zero failures under heavy loads (pulled many trees out of the ground).
Trisha McElroy says:
This is a fabulous explanation, new is not always better. I don’t know how we went to metal rigging. The new “rope type” dyneema helps but I have always loved the traditional materials. Sail on…….
Ken Beiser says:
Outstanding. All the info you really need to make the decision to change. Thanks to you all.
Beau Vrolyk says:
One last remark — While a Dyneema rig certainly increases righting moment stability by lowering weight, there is another terrific effect of a lighter rig. When the boat pitches fore-n-aft, as we all do sailing upwind in a seaway, the weight of the rig is tremendously important. Here light weight pays off BIG TIME as the boat won’t bury her bow nearly as severely in a seaway if her rig is lighter.
Beau Vrolyk says:
This is fascinating. Great useful
We just re-rigged MAYAN (Alden Schooner designed in 1928, built in 1947) to return her rig to the way Alden drew it: the foremast holds a gaff foresail, mainmast is a jib-headed mainsail. We also replaced all the shrouds and stays. For a number of reasons, many of which you discuss in this video, we chose to use stainless steel wire for the center section of the shrouds and stays; but the primary reason was insurance company questions.
The wire rigging we replaced was done the traditional way by Spike Africa using 7×7 stainless wire with spiced loops around the mast sitting on “thumbs” or “hounds”. This means that MAYAN’s spars (original from 1947) don’t have any bolts passing through them or screws into the sides of them.
We wished to retain that, so we used Dyneema loops resting on the same hounds around the mast which terminated the stainless steel shroud at the top. Because the top of the shrouds and stays can shed water more effectively we felt confident using swages for at least a decade of service. The bottom of the wire shrouds are terminated with a Stay-Loc/Norsman/etc… termination to allow us to do it “on the boat”.
We have had great luck with this setup, and when it’s time to replace the wire we will probably go to Dyneema/DUX for all shrouds and stays. One concern is that we have a roller furling jib at the tip of the bowsprit. This makes inspecting the Dyneema inside the roller foil difficult. We may keep this as wire.
Steven Dews says:
Having met you guys and seen your work in Port Townsend, when it comes the time to renew our rig on our modern classic schooner, Wolfhound we will be definitely going for synthetic standing rig instead of steel. Listening to you explain the benefits, again, has totally convinced me to go this route…just have to talk you into travelling to New Zealand to measure up??
We have on board the yacht a small, sailing Ian Oughtred dinghy and changed the wire to dyneema; weight isn’t an issue here but it sure saves the varnish from constant scrapes when de-rigging!
Steven Dews, Wolfhound.
Beau Vrolyk says:
Steven — good to see you here. — Beau
Bill Page says:
Very interesting & informative presentation
Bill Page says:
Very well done and extremely informative…
Bill Page says:
Very well done, and extremely informative – Great job!