Am I missing something? I recently bought an A-Cat as my first beach cat and have been having a blast learning to sail it. But the boat didn't come with any trap lines set up so I just made up my own. I was going to just buy some commercial ones, but they seemed overly complicated and pretty expensive. So instead I just cobbled my own set up, but it got me to thinking that I may have missed something.

First I spliced 7/64 amsteel directly to the Jesus fitting and ran it about three foot above the hull where it is spliced around a 3/16 utility ring ( http://www.jamestowndistributors.com/userportal/show_product.do?pid=8569 ) instead of a standard eye splice I used a whoopie sling splice to make the height adjustable.

Second I eye spliced the same 7/64 dyneema inside a plastic tube (to hold the eye open ala 'can't miss rings') threaded it through the ring, and spliced it to another utility ring. So when you put weight on the harness the two rings interlock. On the other side of this second ring the bungie attaches to pull everything down to the hull.

All in all it gives me a 2:1 adjustable trap, that cost $12 in hardware, a few bucks in amsteel, and a little time to make up. Weighs in at a little over an ounce, and should have a MBL in excess of 1,000lbs.

Compare this to the commercial ones that cost over $100 and I just can't see the justification. But then as I mentioned I am new to beach cats, and perhaps I am missing something. Any thoughts?

I'm picturing this in my mind, it seems your ring is attached directly to the line coming from the mast?

That may work, but it's not how we normally do it. There is normally a double braided line that goes through the eyelet. One end attaches to the shock cord, and the other on the can't miss ring. This allows you to hook in while your sitting on the boat, you can just slide off and the shock cord should keep the hook in the rind until your wight is transferred to it.

I've never seen anyone use an adjustable splice, my synthetic trap lines are luggage tagged at the bottom for extra security.

the problem of using line and not cable for trap wires is they can rub and fray from contact with the sidestays uptop

i would closely check every time you step your mast and make sure there is no fraying goin on. you really don't want to fall off the wire - often leads to a snapped tiller extension and possibly a ghost boat sailing away from you,