Joe, very cool posting. The written piece you are referring to I believe is:
http://www.briontoss.com/education/a...miscsept04.htm
To think that Brion wrote this is 2004. That seems like a long time ago in the short history of these ropes.
Am I dreaming, or did Herreshoff say (after being banned from racing his new fangled catamaran by the NY yacht club)
"In yachting, progress is fine, as long as there is not too much change"