There are many different types of running rigging. We have organized them in three groups, regular, performance and high performance. Many boats, however, may have lines from two groups. We also requests for various custom projects.
Regular lines
Most cruising sail boats fall into this group. Our halyards, sheets and lines are constructed from a good quality double braid polyester line such as New England ropes Sta-set. Wichard and Ronstan halyard shackles are spliced on to ensure the greatest strength. This is the group with a reliable, well proven track record .
Performance lines One step up from regular is the performance group. These also use a double braid line, but the line core are blends of polyolefin, Technora, Vectran and or Dyneema. A good examples of this is New England's VPC and T900. The advantage of this line its superior breaking strength, which gives less halyards and sheets stretch, thereby maintaining the desired sail shape without having to constantly adjust the line tension. This is a big advantage to racing sailors. Often the line diameter to sized one line size smaller than regular polyester double braid, thus saving weight windage aloft. Weight saving aloft equates to increased initial stability, which is advantageous to both cruiser and racer. Our performance line is usually used on the upper end cruising boats, cruiser racers and some one design boats.Wichard and Ronstan halyard shackles are spliced on to ensure the greatest strength.
High Performance lines
The developments in the fibers used in running rigging have been incredible. In using ropes constructed of Dyneema, Vectran and PBO we have been able to supply lines that keep up with demands of today's racing boats. These line have double the tensile strength of polyester line of a similar diameter. The advantage of these ropes is that we can construct lines of smaller diameter, which have less stretch and creep. This is essential in keeping constant sail shape. Also you have less windage and less weight aloft thereby increasing the initial stabity of the boat (all good).
With halyards and spinnaker sheets the ropes' covers are omitted in areas that don't have to be handled under load, stopped off or wrapped around a winch. This again is a weight saving which helps with stability and keeps weight off the boat.
As boat hulls have got lighter, their rigs have become taller and keels deeper and running loads have increased. Stretch has not been the only problem for rope manufacturers. On runners and sheets that are highly loaded lines that are quickly released, regular polyester covers are burned and chafed through very quickly. To combat this high tech covers have been developed. Here we use covers that are blends of polyester and technora or vectran and even PBO.
For control lines which are not as loaded we use lines like Maffioli's 'swift cord' which is soft on the hands and has less water absorption. For halyard shackles we have been using Tylaska's hardware spliced in place.
In this group there are many choices. Our expertise is all important in working with you to ensure that you get the correct running rigging at the right price for your boat.
We often have requests for making up various custom pieces like Loupes/ loops and Strops etc. The picture inserted is of some custom loups we made for a customer with a TP 52. They needed them to attach their Antal blocks to their running backstay.
Products under development.
We are currently in the research and development stage of developing a line of standing rigging, using unidirectional fiber synthetic fibers.
Bosun Yacht Services | A Sailboat Rigging Company.
Regular lines
