Wireless Westsail

[jmolan]

On display at the recent Annapolis boat show was a 1976 Westsail. The boat attracted a lot of attention, not just for it's fine condition.
The entire boat was rigged with Dynex Dux rope rigging. Removed 125 lbs. off the rig and gained a big jump in strength.

Good write up here:

Colligo's Synthetic Rigging


Some pics are on my URL below.

[WanderingStar]

Interesting idea. I've seen some multihulls with synthetic rigging. It could bring back deadeyes. I'd be happy to tie off new shrouds.

[tager]

UV kills it.

[jmolan]

UV Kills it?.......It kills other more expensive fibers, the PBO does not like water either.

Dynex Dux is rated by Lloyds of London as the best of any rope for UV.

http://www.hampidjan.is/media/PDF/Binder1.pdf

Dynex Dux is made by taking the already strong SK-75 (Dynex, Spectra, Amsteel all the same) Heating it and stretching it. This compacts the fibers and increases the strength. Before it is woven, every tiny fiber is coated with a UV protectant. You can re-coat if you like once a year.

Break tests have shown an initial hit of 20% loss of ultimate strength in high UV area after one year. The lab also reports all the damage was on the very outside, and figures the damage will slow. The outter layer acts like the shield.

This loss is to be taken in to account. A 9mm Dynex Dux rope has a breaking strength of 26,500 lbs. The same size SS wire comes in around 10,500 Lbs.

If the UV is still a concern, you can get it covered with an overbraid. The cover is SK-75 as it has proven to be the best material they can find for abraision and UV protection.

Nigel Caulder will be using covered Dux on his new boat.

Here is a good read, written by Brion Toss 5 years ago.

Brion Toss Yacht Riggers Fairleads Newsletter

Progress is OK as long as it does not involve too much change

[night0wl]

Great concept...but what about chafe? Steel rigging, to me, would seem to survive chafe much better. Thoughts?

[WanderingStar]

The flip side being that steel rigging will cause more chafe, on your running rigging and your sails. Of course, it's better to chafe through a sheet than a shroud.

[jmolan]

Dynex Dux is extremely tough, It is a work rope for Tugs, Oil rigs, Big Trawlers. Replacing wire......think about that for a sec. These boats could buy anything they want for warps. Dynex Dux is the choice.

It has replaced wire in the Alaska Trawl fleet. It out last wire 3 to 1 in this service. Dragging up and down rusty steel decks, ice and storm, year round. Some random shots of our Alaska operation are here.


Alaska Only pictures by jmolan - Photobucket


Dyne Dux is used in the logging industry, dragging through the ground over rocks etc. Jeeps use it for ground winches, same rocks and crud. It is industrial rope. It came from the Fishing industry in Iceland. This did not trickle down from the race boat crowd.

It is used to make butchers gloves. It is very hard to cut.

On my sailboat, I used bronze hanks for a year. There was very little fuzz where the hanks had ridden. I swear I think the bronze was wearing. I switched to "softies". They work great as they are slicker and the sail goes up and down right now! Sorry I cannot post photo's for some reason.

Softies | Colligo Synthetic Systems | Colligo Marine

What ever is on your boat, that is rubbing against Dynex Dux is going to loose. It is very slick material. things do not hang up on it.

It takes a while to get your head around material that is stronger that wire, greatly lighter, you can do it your self, and it cost similar to 1x19 SS wire.

As my sailmaker friend said "this just does not happen in the yacht world, this kind of leap in performance, strength, and available for the common guy to do himself"

[tager]

I have a question about dynex dux rigging termination. Would it be possible to use normal thimbles as opposed to deadeyes? A large thimble is cheap and easy to come by compared to colligo and precourt deadeyes. Could one simply use a thimble and lash to that? Would it cause the lanyard to fail? For example, a 5mm shroud of dynex dux, with an oversized stainless thimble for 1/2" line, with lashing. Would that work?

[jmolan]

Originally Posted by tager

I have a question about dynex dux rigging termination. Would it be possible to use normal thimbles as opposed to deadeyes? A large thimble is cheap and easy to come by compared to colligo and precourt deadeyes. Could one simply use a thimble and lash to that? Would it cause the lanyard to fail? For example, a 5mm shroud of dynex dux, with an oversized stainless thimble for 1/2" line, with lashing. Would that work?

Tager, I just tried to do a search for an article about that very subject. It is written by Christopher Kinzel Back in the 2005 or so. These are the sources of that article. I have a PDF file of it, but they removed it from the Hampidjan website where I originally saw it. A 62' Cat self built in NZ. He used regular Dynex Dyneema SK-75 and SS thimbles.
I know of one other rig on a boat in Australia that used SS thimbles for the standing rigging, along with turnbuckles. They elongated after a year he had to switch out to Colligo fittings.

- Multihulls (USA) Cover story May/June 2006 Volume 32 #3
- Multihull World (Aus) Construction July 03,Dec 05, Feb 06, #’s 62, 70, 71
- Multihull World (Aus) Rigging detail Jan/Feb 2006 #76
- Cruising World (USA) Vanuatu.. April 2007
- Multihull World (Aus) Vanuatu.. Nov/Dec 2006 #81

The reports I have got is that a regular thimble will elongate. It is not designed to bear that kind of load. Also the lashings will "spill" on top of them selfeves in the bottom of the saddle. And make tensioning adjustment almost impossible. If you use Dynex Dux you have to make sure you get a big enough radius , at least 5-1 s the very stiff Dux does not like to be bent.
Not sure if the size thimble you are refering to will do that.

This is from Chris's report.

At the lower shroud ends we tried customizing standard rope thimbles by welding a bit of 1
1/2 ss pipe across the width to prevent collapse and to accommodate the tensioning lanyard.
The chainplates were also made with the same pipe set perpendicular to the shroud axis. The
chainplates work well but the thimbles tend to capsize causing the lanyard to pile up on one
side causing uneven loading and making further tensioning impossible.

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[tommays]

They did a really nice job what was the total cost ?