Rigging with Kristian Martincic kristian@chicagoyachtrigging.com

Some answers about the backstay change...

CYR has received a lot of good questions regarding the proposed T10 rule change allowing for a fiber backstay. Below are some answers that may help.

What about chafe?
-Dynex Dux is the toughest synthetic fiber available. It was developed for commercial fishing, where it takes quite a lot of abuse. In addition to the inherent durability of the fiber, the CYR spec backstay has an extra chafe cover at the top where the batten and flicker touch the backstay. I've used this material as a backstay quite a bit, and on boats with bigger roach, without issue.

Why do we need to double the breaking strength?
-When replacing wire or rod with fiber, it's best to make the comparison based on stretch first, and strength second. This results in a far stronger equivalent fiber stay than the metal it replaces. The nice thing about Dynex Dux is that we can achieve similar stretch, and more than 2x strength, all with the same diameter. This keeps windage down.

Will boats without the new backstay be uncompetitve?
-No! Saving 4 lbs, most of it less than 10' off the deck, is going to make a tiny increase in righting moment. There are certainly many more important boat-prep factors at work (sails, when Mr. Ross last did the bottom, etc)

I like my current backstay control arrangement, how will it work with a fiber backstay?
-The control lines will be unchanged, as will the control blocks. This spec just replaces the standing backstay, the 2 wire legs, and the connecting plates/triangles

Will it stretch much?
-There is stretch in both wire and fiber, most of it comes out the first time the line is really loaded up. The spec includes a lashing line to attach the backstay to the transom with, which means any intial constructional stretch or splice setting can be taken out by retensioning.

Does it have to be Dynex Dux? What about Vectran?
-While a larger size of vectran fiber (8mm vs 5mm) could be used to get to the proposed minimum breaking strength, vectran is far more sensitive to both UV and chafe than Dynex Dux. I wouldn't recommend it as there's no real increase in performance for the weight/windage/longevity penalty

Keep the questions coming to kristian@chicagoyachtrigging.com

Files from the Rigging Talk

Kristian can be contacted at kristian462@yahoo.com. Additionally he is willing put together other pages based on what people need.

A copy of the talk is availble on the Chicago t10 Vimeo channel also.

Price list for lines...here
Boomvang...here
Outhaul...here