[Joe Henderson]

Dear Brion and Andrew,

I am so glad that this question has risen it's head again.

We have just finished replacing all the standing rigging on 'LANDFALL' Mike Strong's 1930's S&S designed 40 footer built in Tasmania out of native timbers. She was the first S&S design built outside the States we believe and is still going strong.

We used his special Strong Ropes blend of Dynex Dux with overbraid with Gibb turnbuckles and our served thimbled eye. We pre-stretched in the loft to ensure reliable finished lengths.

We have shipped several similar sets of standing rigging to multihull users and they seem
to have no trouble with it.

As I am a "British Standard Cautious Rigger" who, like you Brion, was also waiting for someone else to have the failures I was paranoid about stretch and creep so when making the shrouds and backstay I set the turnbuckles at just below safe bury.

Much to my surprise and delight I found that after the initial settling had taken place it became taut and responded to tensioning in a fairly linear manner.

I was expecting to struggle to get them connected and then wind the turnbuckles down into the deck while the material stretched like licorice!

But to set up it felt just like the last 7/7 rig I did. In fact the caps were if anything a little short and we had a hell of a job to get them on in the first place and their turnbuckles have rather too much travel left on them for my liking.

This was fine for me who had all the gear at hand to connect shrouds that were just 10 mm too short to start the threads, but for an owner at the other end of a mail order system we have developed turnbuckles with 50% extra thread length. This avoids the 5 PM phone call telling us that we don't know how to measure rigging!

Mike sailed the boat from Sydney back to his mooring in Port Hacking 35 miles through a lumpy sea and a 25 knot headwind and reports that there seems to have been no creep as yet. His garboards are still weeping but that is another story.

I have no hesitation in recommending this material for any rig with decent shroud angles. I do not think that it would suit very low shroud angles or an extreme tall skinny rig. But then again I was sceptical about using it on LANDFALL and it has worked like a charm on her.

My mate Simon Flitcroft in Brisbane is going to put our stuff on his swept spreader sports boat in place of Nitronic rod. I will report back.

Andrew, take the leap of faith and get your stuff replaced. with the increased mast height you will want to chase every kilogram out of your rig.

From your photo it looks like you are in the West Country. There are several good riggers around the area or, if you like, although it is against the spirit of Spartalk, I can put you in touch with a good man for the job.

Best regards,
Joe Henderson.