Boat Forum / Cruising / January 2005

Hi Bob,

Nylon line would be a very bad idea for running rigging on any boat, cruiser
or otherwise.  The excessive stretch and spring that nylon line has would
make trimming sails impossible, and could be very dangerous.  Likewise, 3
strand twisted dacron line makes a very poor running rigging for the same
reasons.  For halyards and sheets, use double braided dacron or better.
You'll be glad you did.

Likewise, using polyester (Dacron) line for anchor or mooring lines is a
very bad idea.  We med-moored a disabled yacht to a concrete wall during a
storm.  I ran out of sufficient nylon mooring line to move further from the
wall, so we used dacron.  Big mistake.  The shock loads this caused as the
yacht surged were scarey.  I'll never do that again!

No way. Stretchy halyards are a plague. Your sail will bag out in a
gust, just as you want it flatter.

Indeed, polyester is too stretchy for halyards. I used spectra core
for the main halyard, when I replaced the wire one. It needs
tightening once after a few minutes.

The jib halyard and the port-side spinnaker halyard now have ( IIRC)
twaron and technora cores, which don't creep as much. On a cruising
boat, I keep the polyester cover over the whole length. I suppose if I
were racing I would strip it except where I handle it and put it
through clutches.

Rodney Myrvaagnes            NYC                                            J36 Gjo/a

"Nuke the gay whales for Jesus" -- anon T-shirt

You certainly wouldn't want stretchy halyards or jib sheets.  But there
are some case where you might want shock absorbing on the main sheet.
When I bought my previous boat, a Nonsuch 30, the mainsheet came rigged
with a rubber snubber, the kind you normally put on a dock line.  The
previous owner felt it was worth a little give in the line to have shock
absorbing in the case of a jibe.  If you've ever sailed a Nonsuch (or
other large cat boat), you'd understand that jibes can be rather
thunderous.  The only other noticeable affect was that the main eased a
little in puffs, not necessarily a bad thing.

No. The shock loading is so low as to be immaterial.

Brian W