I'm in Love!!!
Scot Free III
Frank & Anne
Tue 14 Feb 2017 09:06
It's all Neil's fault. He introduced us.
Neil is a sailing friend who does lots of races, single handed, like the AZAB and The Fastnet, and he introduced me to Dyneema.
No, despite today's date Dyneema is not a woman, she is one of those fancy high modulus ropes used by racers and during one memorable race, he repaired a broken gooseneck, with a length of it and before we left he said "be sure to take some with you on your Transatlantic".
It's light, it floats, is stronger than steel of a similar diameter, impervious to UV and has incredible resistance to wear. It is ridiculously easy to splice and you can make a soft shackle in a few minutes to replace a steel shackle. I've used them to raise the Genoa to stop it rubbing on the pulpit, attach jack stays, the cruising chute is held on, top and bottom, with them and when combined with an Antal low friction ring you can make a replacement for an occasional block, at a fraction of the cost. I've gone into overdrive making them for everything I can think of.
I'm definitely smitten. Happy Valentines Day!
After a few hours where we tied off the wheel rolled up all the sails and just nodded off, bobbing around, the wind finally picked up. Not much, a maximum 10 knots, in the last 24 hours but enough to push us along gently at 3 or 4 knots. At this speed we'll be in St. Lucia just in time for Easter.