Hey I'm thinking of making another tapered main sheet, maybe a bit out of boredom, maybe b/c I've learned it's never bad to have two of anything boat related, from hulls to sails and everything in between.
I use Salsa -> Vectran now. Anyone have a preference for anything else for the fat part? Anyone have any experience with anything else? (looking a bit towards Andrew and Philip here) Looking at APS's selections it looks like they're all a touch different. I'm leaning towards Yale Conception -> Dyneema this time, as conception is the same price as Salsa, but I'm not convinced I need to save $10 over something else, if anyone's experience says otherwise.
It seems like the 3/16" to 1/8" bury would suck. I've made plenty of soft shackles with the 1/8, and as long as I'm careful to keep the tape used to a very small amount it buries easily, but it seems like anything larger would have a real propensity for getting stuck. Maybe I should try a larger needle.
Do you remember how long the middle section is? Seems like at least half of it would be filled with the buries from the other two.
The larger salsa really isn't a problem in an unwieldy sense, as it's so soft and squishy. I even had someone tell me they thought it was too small, heh. However, it's so soft it seems to me that a smaller size wouldn't be any issue on the hands, AND it would probably run through the cleat/eyelet better over time. The 9.5 isn't getting frayed or snagged, but it does seem to be getting pretty 'fuzzy' around the spice, which is where it hits the eyelet when I sheet all the way in, which also comes with the most tension.
genius . . . yes
double taper . . . no
My bad. I told you wrong. The 1/8" is spliced to the traveler end of the Racing Sheet. The 1/8" is the spit tail. I use one sheet for the main and traveler. Very simple splice of the 1/8" into the 8mm Racing Sheet. Hard to describe in writing. A picture would help. I'll look to see if I have one.
As for the length of the 3/16", I start with it a little longer than expected. Rig the boat, sails, rake, everything. Attach the mainsheet, and load the piss out of it, measure distance from cleat to splice and remove that measurement plus about 5 or 6 inches. Make sense?
i had 8 mm (robline racing sheet) but found it was a bit small in real heavy air for my tastes... unfortunately they had no 9mm so i went to 10.. which is a bit fat for what i would want..
Sorry using phone and dictionary isn't the greatest. Brummeled.
Not sure I follow on finding the length but no matter. I just make both ends too long then adjust the location of the bowline on the block to suit until its right and trim the excess.
So the 1/8 is just brimmed into the end to add two tails? I've seen pics of the split tails. Does that allow you to sheet past center?
Technically, there is brummel involved, but the brummel is not involved in how it is spliced to the 8mm racing sheet. Hard to explain, but easy to do. I'll add the picture tonight.
The split tail does not allow you to sheet past center, just to get closer to center than a single anchoring point. The split tail is a one design feature on my boat and is common on the current formula boats like F18, F16, etc. Not many of the older boats have them nor do they need them.
Here's my split tail splice. 1/8" Amsteel into 8mm Racing Sheet. If you want a close up detailed picture use this link: http://www.thebeachcats.c…203&g2_imageViewsIndex=1
The reason the whole thing is small (short) is we don't want to cleat onto anything except the 8mm Racing Sheet, and we don't want to hinder the split as it enters the traveler. Said another way, you want the splice to fit between the traveler sheaves and the traveler cleat.
I went ahead and added a photo of a valuable splice used in a lot of applications, a buried tail taper. Double braid that transitions into a Dyneema core, Amsteel, etc. This is commonly used as a spinnaker halyard.
For a closeup use this link: http://www.thebeachcats.c…207&g2_imageViewsIndex=1