Two seasons have gone by and we are readying ourselves for season three!
After many hours on the water we got a pretty good feel for our running rigging choices. Check out the rationale from the detailed article I wrote in two years back (here).
At the time, I sat down with Liros Ropes here in Gothenburg and together we jotted down our thoughts. The result was a comprehensive matrix with all lines, dimensions, splices and colour coding.
| Application | Length (m) | Diameter (mm) | Type | Colour |
| Traveller | 6 | 8 | Dynamic Plus | white-green |
| Main halyard | 30 | 8 | V-Force | silver red |
| Jib halyard | 22 | 8 | Racer XTR | beige-burgundy |
| Spinnaker Halyard | 28 | 7 | Magic Edge | black-red |
| Tack-line | 18 | 7 | Magic Edge | black-yellow |
| Main sheet | 19 | 9 | Magic Sheet | blue navy |
| Jib sheet | 22 | 8 | Dynamic Plus | white-green |
| Spinnaker sheet | 18×2 | 8-5 | Liros Spi | blue-white and green-white |
| Cunningham | 4 | 5 | Magic Edge | yellow |
| Main reef 1 | 12 | 8 | Racer Vision | steelblue-blue |
| Jib reef | 10 | 8 | Racer XTR | beige-orange |
| Kicker | 9 | 5 | Magic Edge | red |
| Reaching outhaul | 2.5×2 | 5 | Magic Edge | yellow |
| Upper backstay | 10 | 6 | D-Pro Static | silver |
| Lower backstay | 9 | 6 | D-Pro Static | silver |
| Backstay pulley | 14 | 5 | Magic Edge | red |
| Main outhaul | 14 | 5 | Magic Edge | white-blue |
| Retractable sprit | 7 | 7 | Magic Edge | black-silver |
Fast forward to now.
The overall verdict is very positive.
Let us try summarising our feedback:
Wear
All lines are still in great condition, showing very little wear. Perhaps with the exception of the spinnaker sheets tapered end, which chafe against the forestay at every jibe.
Behaviour
Spinnaker and jib halyards, tack line and pole line had a kinky tendency. As they run fast through their leads, they jammed often. Of course, those are the lines you don’t want to ever get stuck. The solution was a 40deg washing cycle in the washing machine with softener. A heads-up though. If you do go this way with your domestic washing machine, make sure to break the load to a maximum of 2kg and wash in several cycles. I didn’t and it costed me a new washing machine.
Splicing
I spliced and tapered most lines, which is quite easy with the right tools. If I now need to be critic, I’d say that I struggled to bury the cover of the Racer XTR lines as it is so stiff and hard. But overall, very nice winter activity in front of Netflix.
Colour coding
Stuff happens fast on a sport boat and often you don’t have time to tidy up between manoeuvres. Having proper colour coding, ensuring that lines in the same zone are easy recognisable at a glance makes all the difference. I sailed on boats where all lines were cut from the same spool. All white lines. Nightmare!
Perhaps it’s me, but I even thought that the spinnaker sheet should have had different colours. As you sail downwind, both sheets lay in a heap in the centre of the cockpit. Comes a jib and you don’t know if you are pulling the right sheet around the forestay.
That will change this season with spinnaker sheets in different colour on starboard and port. We also went for spliced ends on the new sheets as the old ones tended to get stuck on the forestay.
Size
Very glad I listened to my head and not my heart when it comes to line thickness. My heart was just screaming: it’s a small boat, small loads, get the most thin and light lines you can get. My head whispered to think about grip and wet cold hands. We went up a size and several lines are “unecessarily” thick. But it is so worth it!
Great stuff
We just love the main sheet, a 9mm “Magic Sheet”. Soft, great grip, runs very well, little chafe. The 9mm size is just perfect.
We had a little lower expectation for our jib sheets as they are one of Liros “simpler” products called Dynamic Plus. Turns out they do not kink. At all. The run fast without catching anywhere. Great on the winch. Soft in your hands. In fact we adopted the same line for the main traveller as well.
Lastly, we noticed that when the main halyard was set to its mark at the end of this season, the sail top wouldn’t reach the black band. Could it be creep? Unlikely. Creep requires constant loads for a long time. Way longer.
Nevertheless, we will give a try to Liros V-Force which has a core based on Vectran fibres, no creep whatsoever. Vectran has a slightly lower breaking load than Dyneema, which means marginally greater elongation for the same diameter and applied load.
All this is likely irrelevant as I’d think the sail stretches at lower loads than the line does. On the negative side, Vectran is UV sensitive and should not be tapered. Can I live with it?