HM Attachments

[Jack]

It has been pretty quiet around the ol' SparTalk table lately.

At The recent Port Townsend Wooded Boat Festival, I had the pleasure of finally meeting Brion. After sitting through an hour of good education at a presentation he gave, I tagged along as Brion and the crew were busy getting a beautiful 40 something wooden boat ready to take off for the Pacific.
That were finishing up with a new staysail stay that was made from HM Dynex Dux. It was a pleasure to watch the crew go aloft and go about the business of rigging.
The whole weekend is a treat. Plenty of "eye candy" to keep the most die hard wood boat guy happy.
I wanted to throw out one something that some of you may not have seen. I cannot post photos here so I will give a link. For lack of a better name I call these "Soft Hanks" Colligo is calling the "softies"....
What I have found is they are able to replace the SS shackle in almost every place I can think of. It has been so nice to use it to attach sails at the head, and the tack. To attach blocks, sheets, you name it, I have tried it. So far so good. My most brutal test was 3 months on the hook acting as failed block on my anchor bridle. No wear that I could detect. A flattening of the rope, that you can massage back to life. But no gouged paint or loud banging!
Some of what I am doing is really trying to destruct the stuff ot see what it can take. It has been fun....!

http://tinyurl.com/m7orsv