ItsBruce
Contributor
Technology is not always beneficial. Wednedsay proved it.
I do lots of water related things. Besides scuba, I race sailboats. Wednesday evenings we do "beer can" racing. Except unlike the rest of the world, this is serious stuff. We have between 15 and 25 identical boats on the line.
The main halyard (the rope for hoisting the mainsail) on my boat is made from a product called "Vectran." It is stronger and lighter than steel. We use it because it is critical to reduce weight up high. It has to do with the moment of inertia as the boat heels. However, it is very UV sensitive. As a result, part of it is covered with a sheath of dacron. When the sail is up, the part with the sheath is coiled on deck where the weight does not matter. All that is up the mast is uncovered Vectran.
When we returned to the dock after the race, we lowered the mainsail. I removed the main halyard shackle from the top of the sail. Normally, I attach it to the outboard end of the boom while folding the mainsail. I thought I did it last evening. However, in the darkness, I apparently failed to put it through the loop on the end of the boom.
Here is the problem. The length of the halyard from the masthead to the shackle is the same length as from the masthead to the other end of the halyard, i.e. the part one pulls to hoist the sail. However, that other end is covered with dacron. The result is that it is heavier than the portion with the shackle. So, rather than just hand there as would be the case with a Dacron or Kevlar halyard, the heavier portion pulled came down and the lighter portion took off for the masthead.
Today, the rigger, who charges $80 to climb the mast and retrieve the halyard, finally gave me a "Frequent Climber Card." Ain't technology great.
I do lots of water related things. Besides scuba, I race sailboats. Wednesday evenings we do "beer can" racing. Except unlike the rest of the world, this is serious stuff. We have between 15 and 25 identical boats on the line.
The main halyard (the rope for hoisting the mainsail) on my boat is made from a product called "Vectran." It is stronger and lighter than steel. We use it because it is critical to reduce weight up high. It has to do with the moment of inertia as the boat heels. However, it is very UV sensitive. As a result, part of it is covered with a sheath of dacron. When the sail is up, the part with the sheath is coiled on deck where the weight does not matter. All that is up the mast is uncovered Vectran.
When we returned to the dock after the race, we lowered the mainsail. I removed the main halyard shackle from the top of the sail. Normally, I attach it to the outboard end of the boom while folding the mainsail. I thought I did it last evening. However, in the darkness, I apparently failed to put it through the loop on the end of the boom.
Here is the problem. The length of the halyard from the masthead to the shackle is the same length as from the masthead to the other end of the halyard, i.e. the part one pulls to hoist the sail. However, that other end is covered with dacron. The result is that it is heavier than the portion with the shackle. So, rather than just hand there as would be the case with a Dacron or Kevlar halyard, the heavier portion pulled came down and the lighter portion took off for the masthead.
Today, the rigger, who charges $80 to climb the mast and retrieve the halyard, finally gave me a "Frequent Climber Card." Ain't technology great.
