How thick are your sheets?

Moderator: GreenLake

How thick are your sheets?

Postby fatjackdurham » Mon Aug 21, 2017 8:45 pm

I went to buy new sheets, and I thought my old ones were half inch. But after buying 1/2" line, I found they didn't fit into the blocks. Reexamination showed that the old sheets were perhaps 7/16". But they only had one line at West Marine in that diameter, and I didn't like the hairy feel of it, so I bought 3/8"

Hopefully, it won't be too thin to hold and pull.

How thick are your sheets?
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Re: How thick are your sheets?

Postby GreenLake » Tue Aug 22, 2017 2:54 am

You can find all the data on therope for various lines in my boat in the thread of the same name.

The key to holding power is ratchet blocks.

The best ratchet blocks (in my opinion) are Ronstan.
~ green ~ lake ~ ~
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Re: How thick are your sheets?

Postby carl10579 » Tue Aug 22, 2017 10:47 am

I have 3/8 on my sheets, 5/16 on my halyards and 1/4 on everything else and on both boats. I'll check greenlake later. I've been buying double braid off of ebay with good luck so far. That new England rope that DR sell is by far the best but the stuff I've been getting is pretty close. A cool thing I bought was a set of Selma Fids. Now I have eye splices on everything I can find that can use one. Also made a nice dog leash out of the 3/8 rope for a Chocolate Lab.

Carl
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Re: How thick are your sheets?

Postby fatjackdurham » Tue Aug 22, 2017 10:52 am

Nice, Carl.

Bought a set of fids, but they aren't hollow all the way, so I have to tape the line to them. That makes it tough on one part of the eye splice. When I get my mill installed, I may try to deepen the cut on them to make it easier.
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Re: How thick are your sheets?

Postby GreenLake » Tue Aug 22, 2017 12:33 pm

Splicing: I've made my own fids. Knitting needles work, as does aluminum tubing from the hardware store.

For the tubing, I think I cut a slit at one end and then folded/hammered the end into a tip, then filed/sanded that smooth. Did several halyards with that.

For the knitting needles, I cut them in half, then filed a flat spot. It helps with taping line to the fid.

Much of the double braid is pretty stretchy, easily gives an inch or two over the length of a mast. That means your sail shape changes with every gust -- in the direction you don't want it to: fuller.

I've been using a technique I found described on L-36.com to splice double braid tails onto Amsteel (dyneema) halyards. Amsteel is really easy to splice - the technique is a bit different (Brummel splice) but easy to master. The transition to double braid isn't more complex than splicing double braid.

The exact numbers should be in that other thread, but I ended up using 3/16 for the halyard tail and 1/8 for the Amsteel. I can use 3/16 for the tail, because it's still grippy enough for the purpose of raising the sail, and it's not under load while sailing. The 1/8" Amsteel is plenty strong enough and simply doesn't stretch. When I have full hoist on the sail, it's like coming to a hard stop. I measured it so the tail starts right before the cleat for better holding (Amsteel is a bit slippery).

If you have 5/16" and want to use that as your tails, then you either need to go oversize on the Amsteel, or, and that's what I did on one halyard, step it down, by splicing a bit of 3/16" Amsteel as an "adapter" between the 5/16" and the 1/8".

As Carl discovered, splicing is fun - you may have to buy a second boat to have enough lines to practice your craft on :)
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