I am re-rigging Voyager and am interested to know if others have gone the traditional route and used three strand. What has your experience been with this rope. I’m considering 1/2" Spunflex (was Roblon) for the halyards and main sheet and 3/8" for the other sheets.
We rigged IDUNA with 3/8" (10mm) three-strand Spunflex about 5 years ago - halyard and lifelines only. The cost was $142.00 for 700 ft. The Spunflex worked fine. At first it was a little stiff and required 4 wraps on the winch to prevent it from slipping on the drum. Over time the line softened and did not slip on the winch. After 5 years we are starting to see chafe near the shackle end of the main halyard. The chafe extended over a span of about 3 ft. Inspection of the interior of the three-strand shows no noticeable chafe between each of the stands where the strands work against each other. I suspect, if we were constantly using the boat, we would see interior chafe by now. Although this type of chafe is common to all three-strand rope, the amount of chafe is dependent of the type of sizing, construction method and material of construction. Spunflex is particular prone to this interior chafing. This is a common problem on schooners and tallships that use Spunflex, hence they frequently replace braces, lines and halyards. The rope does stretch and we have to adjust the tension when the wind builds. Splicing Spunflex is easy. Although we have not had to do a long splice, a long splice would be easy to make. Because Spunflex does not have a nice hand and we are starting to see some chafing, we have decided to test English Braids three-strand buff polyester - www.RWrop.com. This product has less stretch than Spunflex, a nicer hand, higher working loads and will outlast Spunflex. Unfortunately, it is expensive at $0.90 per foot for 3/8" rope. We recently replaced the main halyard with the buff polyester rope and liked working with it immediately. It is easy to splice, coils well, is a dream to handle and looks very traditional. Based on our initial sea trial, we have decided to replace all of the halyards and lifelines with the English Braids buff polyester, instead of new Spunflex. The old halyards will be used as towing line for our dink because Spunflex floats, rope grommets, etc.
Rod
I have used pre-stretched 3-strand Dacron for the last 6 years and although I don’t sail a great deal I really like it. The sailmaker I used for my new sails recommended English Braid 3-strand. It’s a little less stretch and easier on the hands although it’s more expensive. We used it for the luff rope on the sails.
Doug Beu
s/v Fritha
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Subject: [BCC Forum Post] wfraser: Three Strand Running Rigging
Author: wfraser
Username: wfraser
Subject: Three Strand Running Rigging
Forum: BCC Forum
Link: http://www.samlmorse.com/forum/read.php?5,5925,5925#msg-5925
I am re-rigging Voyager and am interested to know if others have gone the traditional route and used three strand. What has your experience been with this rope. I’m considering 1/2" Spunflex (was Roblon) for the halyards and main sheet and 3/8" for the other sheets.
Rod,
When in a good blow, how much stretch are you seeing? A full turn of your Murrays? Other than the chafe that took five years to show itself, and the lack of a good hand, you’re happy with the line?
How does it coil? Is kinking or unlaying a problem? Were you satisfied with Spunflex as lifelines?
It’s hard top argue with the price when a coil of 1/2 inch (722 ft.) comes in at 0.37 cents a foot.
Warren
BCC Voyager
{WF} When in a good blow, how much stretch are you seeing? A full turn of your Murrays? Other than the chafe that took five years to show itself, and the lack of a good hand, you’re happy with the line?
{RB} When the wind strength increases to let’s say 20 to 30 knots we may have to tension the main halyard by 1/4 of a turn, no more than 1/2 turn. Considering, IDUNA’s Murray halyard winches are the mini model with cleat, this is not that much stretch for three-strand rope. The lack of tension in the luff of the main, when the wind picks up is compounded by the fact we have not been applying enough tension to the luff when we initially hoist sail. The hand will improve, especially in a salt water environment. We noticed this when we visited Bluenose II. The Spunflex on Bluenose II was softer than ours and felt “oily and wet. “Analysis” suggested the lines were salty and damp - yummy. We mostly sail the Chesapeake, which is brackish in our region. In general, I was satisfied with Spunflex rope considering the cost. My first mate is not pleased with Spunflex’s hand nor the chafe. Because she does 90% of the sail work and a happy 1st mate means a happy ship, I will replace the Spunflex with English Braids Buff polyester. In addition, I went aloft on the chafed Spunflex main halyard and after I was back on deck, I decided I was foolish to risk my life for the cost difference between 3/8” (10 mm) Spunflex at 20 cents per foot and 3/8" Buff polyester at 90 cents per foot. By-the-By, the movie production for “Master and Commander, The Far Side of the World,” used 5 tons of the Buff polyester.
We talked with the crews of the schooners Sultana (http://www.schoonersultana.org/), Pride of Baltimore (http://www.pride2.org/) and Bluenose II (http://www.bluenose2.ns.ca/) about Spunflex. The crew members we talked to, did not like Spunflex because of its hand. The main reason these boats use Spunflex is because of cost and it looks traditional. The Captain of the schooner Virginia (http://schoonervirginia.org/), a friend of ours, does not like Spunflex for the above reason and because it is prone to internal chafe.
{WF} How does it coil? Is kinking or unlaying a problem? Were you satisfied with Spunflex as lifelines?
{RB} The Spunflex coils without kinking and does not unlay. We were very satisfied with Spunflex for lifelines.
{WF} It’s hard to argue with the price when a coil of 1/2 inch (722 ft.) comes in at 0.37 cents a foot.
{RB} Yes, it is difficult to justify the cost of English Braids Buff polyester rope when one can purchase Spunflex at about 1/3 the cost. Let’s assume, you replace your Spunflex running rigging ever three years, is the cost differential between Spunflex and Buff polyester really a savings?
Induna’s sheet lines are New England Rope Regatta Braid We selected this rope because it has a very soft hand.
If I may suggest, purchase enough Spunflex rope for your main halyard and enough Buff polyester for your staysail halyard or purchase 10-15 ft of each and test the ropes on your winches and under a static load. Your could also use a a Prusik knot made from a strop, to connect these short pieces of line to the main haylard for testing the lines under actual conditions. I would do this as follows.
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Hoist the mainsail and tension the halyard,
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Using a strop, tie a Prusik knot (hitch) to the main halyard and slide the Prusik hitch about 5-6 ft up from the main halyard winch,
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Connect the Spunflex or Buff polyester to the Prusik hitch using either a becket hitch (sheet bend) or bowline,
4.Remove the mainsail halyard from the winch and tension the halyard with the short piece of new rope.
Fair Winds,
Rod
BCC IDUNA
1 Like
Rod,
Thanks a lot for your considered response. I had been prepared to go whole hog and load the entire boat up with Spunflex. Instead, I’m going to just go with the main halyard for now and see how that goes, as per your suggestion.
I’m in the process of traditionalizing Voyager, all wood spars, wooden blocks, three strand, bronze fittings, etc. and will be splashing her in three weeks after a summer of weekend work and blazingly hot (33?C average) weather. As we all know, the BCC is a beautiful vessel, and I can hardly wait to set sail.
Thanks again.
Warren
s/v Voyager of Yokohama
Warren:
Working in 33 C weather is very difficult, I salute you for your tenacity to get the job done. Voyager of Yokohama must be one beautiful boat with her wooden blocks, wood spars and bronze fittings.
I inspected the rest of our Spunflex running rigging and did not find any signification degree of chafe, other than my initial findings on the main halyard. Granted the hand is not the best compared to braid on braid or Buff polyester but I want to test the Buff polyester a little while longer before spending the money to replace the Spunflex with the Buff polyester. We plan to take a two week sailing trip in October. I will write more about my thoughts about Spunflex vs. Buff polyester after that trip.
If I can be of further service, please contact me.
Fair Winds,
Rod