Tag Archives: Dyneema Standing Rigging

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Is Sailing Japan Very Expensive? And Is My New Dyneema Rigging A Disaster?

Today I answer viewer’s question as to the Costs of Cruising in Japan. And a question on the dyneema rigging creep issue.

Regards cost of cruising in Japan, this is my own personal take on the costs, based on actually living, cruising and doing work on other peoples sailboats here in Japan. Like the majority of cruisers coming in to Japan, I don’t have the advantage of being fluent in speaking or reading Japanese.

The Dyneema creep issue is fairly complex, and involves temperature and working loads etc.
What I have answered is just the basic common sense part of the question.
I could go on in great lengths and detail about heat treament in fibre versus braided versus type of dyneema, end usage and the type of boat you have, actual rope size versus practical sizes, costs etc etc
Would be like talking about anchors and anchoring. In short nothing but divisive, a bit of windup and pointless. .

Would be like talking about anchors and anchoring. In short nothing but divisive, a bit of windup and pointless.

So kept it very simple, with three points to keep in mind.
1/ Use the correct Dyneema
2/ The diamater of your Dyneema
3/ How good/tight your splice is

But most importantly is I had the help and advice from Peter Greig a professional Synthetic Rigger.

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Steel or Synthetic (Dyneema) standing rigging. [SEA JAPAN EP:27]

PART TWO: OUR CHOICE BASED ON LOCATION, TIME AND COST

This week is part two of our decision to replace our 55 foot Wharram Catamaran’s standing rigging.

Sailing and cruising around Japan brings its own rewards and challenges. One of the challenges is trying to do maintenance and replace gear. Japan has all the stuff required but it is either very hard to source and/or it’s very expensive.

The choice between new synthetic (dyneema) standing rigging, keeping the old grungy stainless rigging, or go with new stainless was a choice based around our location in Japan’s Inland Sea, the time left before we had to re-step the masts and the actual dollar cost.

If it hadn’t been for the rather fortuitous meeting with the Australian synthetic rigger guru, Peter Greig, then the outcome would have been very different.

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New Dyneema Rigging. Long Bury Splice how to: Part One. [Sea Japan Ep:26]

Decided to replace our old stainless wire standing rigging with new synthetic dyneema rope using the long bury method and low friction rings.

This video is an interview I did with an Australian rigger Peter Grieg.
I took this video, with the idea that I would use it as a guide when I did my own synthetic rigging. I was not intending to put it out on YouTube.
Other than adding a couple of bits for clarification, the video is unedited and starts when I turned on the camera.
It’s not organized into a step one, step two… Rather it is a simple hands on conversation with a very experienced rigger, who has a passion for spreading the word on synthetic rope and its many benefits.

This is Part One:
Peter goes over how to calculate, or measure, the length of the replacement synthetic stay.
How to correctly do a long bury splice in dyneema.
How to add a single and multiple low-friction rings.
Goes over his “width of palm plus thumb” rule.

Next Episode Part Two:
What I learnt in handling Dynice Dux dyneema.
Making my own s/s fids.
Mistakes I made.
What I would do differently.
Would I still go with dyneema or stay with stainless if I had a bigger budget and more time?
Breakdown and cost of the new synthetic rigging, covering(sheath), tools and low friction rings.