Best Vendor for new side stays

if you don't mind throwing the old one in the mail, I can give you a few recommendations here in florida
PM if you want more info

Salty Dog Marine
https://www.saltydogmarine.com/

Beware of cheap Asian SS wires

Hey John....

A quick Google search turned up Hatchway's Sail and Rigging Shop... I am sure if you bring them the ones you have the could make you a new set...

https://www.hathaways.com/

Also, try Murray's Marine.. I am sure that Joel has made these in the past.

And, as Hullflyer noted watch for the import crap...

As a larger trimaran owner (F25C) we see that on larger multis everyone has gone to synthetic (Dyneema). Is there a reason we don't move to synthetic for our beach cats?

James
F25C+
H17+

JLOOBY wrote: Is there a reason we don't move to synthetic for our beach cats?

Yes.
Dyneema and other synthetics have very low abrasion tolerance.
The mast on a Beachcat rotates a lot, sometimes more than 100 degrees, and this twists the standing rigging against the mast below the hound.
Coated stainless steel doesn't care, but tensioned synthetic fibers will wear out much quicker than you want them to.
Search the forums here for the discussions on this.

Mostly economics and potential for vandalism. A good set of coated dyneema stays would run more than most of our boats cost (not that that would deter me) and likely wouldn't last nearly as long. PBO is out of the question. Also my boat sits on my beach unattended most of the time. Nothing like some kid with a pocket knife dropping your mast.

If you sail in salt I suggest getting a local rigging shop with bare wire. If you are only fresh water then the coated lines produced by murray's or Salty dog should be mostly fine. The reason is that the coated wires, although nice can hide corrosion. This isn't normally a big issue in fresh water (unless you have some pretty ugly conditions) but salt water can corrode stain-less pretty dramatically and a failure is a bad situation. Normally the corrosion presents at the fittings but every once in a while...

Anyway my 2 cents. Its good to support your local rigger if you can but I've mostly ordered my rigging from Murray's or APS. I couldn't wait for my local guy to get to my order in a month and he doesn't roller swage fittings.

Thanks to all. I remember the days when nearly all hardware was domestically produced and wasn't made from slag.

I've been running synthetic shrouds on my A-Cat for over 5 years, and synthetic traps on my other cats. I change them out every 2-3 years, not because they need it, but because it's cheap insurance. The modern coated dyneema materials are very resistant to UV. Just inspect your rig before you go sailing, and chafe shouldn't be a problem.

-Mike

Mike, no creep issues?
no need to ever re-tension them? if so, how do you do it?

I have the "punisher". An I-beam with a 20 ton hydraulic ram and digital load cell.

I build them slightly under spec length, pull them to 50% of breaking load and let it sit under tension for 1/2 hour. This removes the "constructional" stretch, and any looseness created by the splices.

Once this has been done, you are good to go.

However, if you remove them and store them unloaded for any length of time, they will relax/shrink slightly.

To avoid that, I step the mast, tighten the rig, let it sit for 10 mins, tighten the lashings a second time, and you are good to go.

I've measured the rig tension, done a regatta, and measured it again after the regatta, and the tension is the same.

I've used this process when building standing rigging for A-Cats, Weta's, R-33's, and a couple of Corsairs.

My preferred material was Marlow D12 Max SK78, however I just purchased a spool of D12 Max SK99 to try out. It's the same diameter as the SK78 but 20% stronger.

-Mike

Thanks for the info
do you think you could do this without the punisher?

what type of lashings do you do?
any pics?

It would not be as repeatable without the punisher. I pull it to a set % of strength for set amount of time. I've heard of people using cars, come-along, etc. I have winches also set up on my rigging bench, but even the winch doesn't do the job of the ram/load cell combo

Lashings on the A's are from a thimble on the shroud to a shackle on the boat, passed through 4 times.

Casings on the bigger boats use Colligo or Precourt lashing blocks - http://www.colligomarine.com

Ok I'm sold, who do I go to for a set of trap lines for my 5.7 to test it out?

And yes I'm a sucker for anything high tech.

Edited by Wolfman on Jun 23, 2016 - 01:13 AM.

John:

From the 'looks' of your fleet, just replace the stays/shrouds with SS. Less hassle, long lasting, fewer worries and WTF... you are not competitively racing in A Class.

Lashings on the A's are from a thimble on the shroud to a shackle on the boat, passed through 4 times.

Ahhh so you can always re-tighten your lashings IF there is any issue.
now I understand how it can be done on a beachcat.

PS yes I saw those lashings on Colligo and it made sense to me how a big mono could use them

Thanks for the info

Wolfman,

PM Mike Krantz in this thread, he has a nice product. Many in our area use him.

On new stays for a Tornado, go SS. If its gotten to the point of broken strands, soft rigging isn't for you.

If its gotten to the point of broken strands, soft rigging isn't for you.

just curious, why do you say that?

Wolfman wrote: Ok I'm sold, who do I go to for a set of trap lines for my 5.7 to test it out?

And yes I'm a sucker for anything high tech.Edited by Wolfman on Jun 23, 2016 - 01:13 AM.

For trap lines there is no need to go to a heat set line like you do for shrouds. A marginal amount of stretch simply isn't going to matter. I have been using 7/64" amsteel for traps I made myself, but I had Mike make the shrouds for my A-Cat. I don't have the receipt in front of me, but they were about $100 for the set.

Yeah I have been contemplating learning to make and eye splice and make my own trap lines. I'll definitely give mike a PM when I figure out what I'm going to do. I've made so many changes to my boat recently I should probably shake those out first before I do anything else. Also going to order a new maple leaf jib for the 5.7 to replace the one I flogged to death a several weeks ago in a bad blow and multiple failure incident.

splicing 8 strand dynemma or verctran is easy
I would suggest a Swedish fid or Brian Toss tool

the old school fids are not easy nor fun to use