There was a time when I thought all the “salty” stuff one can add to a modern sailboat was
tres chic. Rope ratlines in a double sag on both sets of mainmast shrouds were not only cool, but they promised a deeper view of the reefy waters of my imagination. Baggywrinkle on the spreader tips, I reasoned, should be just as beneficial for Dacron sails as it had been for linen or cotton for centuries. And for an
anchor light what could be more dependable than a kerosene lantern suspended from the boom?
A few thousand miles of distant waters, and a few strong breezes from unfamiliar quarters have cast new light on some of these romantic notions. Rope ratlines of a diameter consistent with the other rigging on a small boat are unusable without shoes, and shoes are rarely worn aboard when sailing in the warm waters we prefer. Baggywrinkle represents an astonishing amount of unwanted windage high in the rigging, while the sails are better protected with a chafe patch and/or a spreader boot. And low-draw LEDs have virtually eliminated the only viable argument for a kerosene anchor light.
As a matter of fact, the longer I sail, the more I subscribe to the less-is-more philosophy. Today our boat sports better gear, but less of it. New items must earn their way aboard. Old gear has to remain useful for the way we use our boat or it goes ashore.
An example of the latter is shroud rollers. We are away on a cruise, and we endeavor to do nearly all of our sailing on a single tack. That makes shroud rollers superfluous. But when we return to home waters where a day of sailing can have us on a score of different headings, shroud rollers become very attractive. In our home waters we tend to use bigger headsails, which drag wickedly across the shrouds with every tack. Less damaging but equally annoying, the knot attaching sheet to clew finds a way to grip the shroud, resulting in at least a sloppy tack, and sometimes in a trip forward to deal with the entanglement manually.
Shroud rollers eliminate these problems. Sheets and backwinded sails glide smoothly over the rollers, making for sparkling tacks and easy sheeting. Plastic rollers are commercially available, but for about the same amount of money, you can fabricate a set of wooden rollers which will look infinitely better and should last forever.
Supplies and tools Wood rollers are fabricated from half-round molding that you should be able to buy from your local lumber yard. Available width (diameter) will likely be from one inch to one and a half inches. Your choice, if you have one, is simply a matter of scale for the size boat you own; any roller one inch or larger will do the job admirably. For each shroud roller you will need 10 or 12 linear feet of half round, depending on whether you want your finished rollers to stand five feet or six feet tall. Have the yard cut the pieces to the finished length. Ash is the preferred wood, but almost any wood will work as long as you protect it with a weather-proof coating.
Which brings us to the only other supplies you need. You will require enough epoxy resin to fully encapsulate the half-round pieces—there is no gluing involved—and you will need a small can of UV-resistant varnish. You will also need thinner, a few throw-away brushes, some 100-grit sandpaper, and a medium-texture Scotchbrite pad. A spool of waxed twine completes the supply list.
The only tool required is a router, along with a pair of bits. The first of the two needed bits is a core box bit slightly larger than the diameter of your shroud wire. A core box bit cuts a half-round channel, and if, for example, your shrouds are ¼-inch wire, you need a 5/16-inch or a 3/8-inch core box bit. The other router bit you need is a half-inch straight-cut bit.
Fabricating A router table is handy for this project if you have one. If not, clamp your router to a foot-square scrap of plywood and plunge the spinning core box bit through the plywood. Support this plywood “table” with the router underneath. Unplug the router for safety and adjust the height of the core box bit above the table to exactly one half its diameter.
Whether you are using a router table fence or making do with a length of straight wood clamped to your plywood table, you want the distance from the center of the bit to the fence to be exactly one half the width of the half-round molding. When you run each piece of the half-round molding tight against the fence and flat side down, the result should be a half-round channel in the exact center of the molding.
To complete the roller, mate two of the routed lengths of half-round, reversing one if necessary to perfect the match of the channel. Tape the mated pair tightly together in several places with single layers of tape. Without moving the fence or the router, remove the core box bit and replace it with the half-inch straight bit. Plunge it up through the plywood table to enlarge the hole cut by the core box bit. Adjust the height above the table of the square bit to 1/16 inch. With this set-up, if you push the assembled roller across the cutter and against the fence, then slowly rotate the roller, you will cut a perfect 1/16-inch deep channel right around the roller. This channel is to contain the whipping that will hold the two halves permanently together around the shroud. Cut channels not more than 3 inches from each end and evenly spaced on 10- to 14-inch centers, the exact spacing determined by the length of your particular rollers.
When you have cut all the grooves in an assembled roller, untape the two halves and code them inside so you can quickly tell which two are mates and which way they match. Lightly sand the halves and seal them inside and out with two or three coats of catalyzed
epoxy resin, allowing each coat to kick before applying the next. Let the final application of epoxy cure overnight.
On the following day (or later), scrub the waxy film off the outside of the roller halves using the Scotchbrite pad and lots of water. Scuff the dry surface with 100-grit sandpaper. Because epoxy is not UV resistant, you will need to finish the outside of the rollers (not the inside) with several coats of UV-resistant
varnish—or
paint if you prefer. If you apply subsequent coats within the time specified on the varnish can label, you will not need to sand between coats. Otherwise, sand lightly with 100-grit paper.
To install the completed rollers, first cut one side of a stainless steel washer the size of your wire (i.e. a 1/4-inch washer for 1/4-inch wire) and twist it open to fit it around the wire. Realign the cut edge. This washer will lie against the top of the wire terminal and serve as a bearing for the roller. Assemble matching halves of a roller around a shroud and tape them together. Using the waxed twine, whip the two halves together with a uniform layer of whipping in each of the ½-inch groves around the roller. If you start the whipping with a loop of twine across the groove, you can thread the other end of the completed whipping through that loop so that pulling on the tail left at the beginning buries the junction of both ends neatly beneath the whipping. Clipping the tails short completes the installation.
Wood rollers add a traditional look, and in this case, they do the intended job as well or better than any modern alternative. If you tack often with an overlapping headsail, they are a worthy enhancement.
