Synthetic shrouds and stays... on Trimarans

Some topics aren't easy to find the right place. I might post following in the sub divisoin "materials" or "boat building", but I think it makes more sense to keep it in the division "multihulls", as it refers the specific rigging of trimarans using synthetic materials.



As some of you know I am lurking around since months for a trimaran I can live + work on... I went through 10 boats or so in the size of 35 to 50 ft. Mostly the owners or brokers do not deliver the details I like to know... or they think they can make the deal heavily overprized.

My search keeps going... and now I got the first sales offer a cruising-racing 40 foot Trimaran has a roation wing mast (made of aluminium) by Sparcraft which are specialists for multihull masts... in combination with synthetic shrouds (of the standing rig) deliverd by Colligo Marine.

Colligo has a synthetic rig system for up to 70 feet. Different Trimarans have Colligo... e.g. Newick (see upper picture), Farrier, Corsair and others.



I have started to read about the (+) and (-) of Synthetic shrouts/stays, e.g. this interesting article
Synthetic Standing Rigging: The Modern and Traditional

Anybody here who has some (years of) experience with synthetic materials on a Trimaran or Catamaran ?

I'd appreciate it to learn from you about the "have to" and "donts" !

Happy Sailing !

Dick Newick Trimaran Lucky Strike (50 ft) with Colligo synthetics ...


Corsair F27...

 

We have tthe on our Corsair. Love the synthetic, wouldn't consider going back.

 

Great.... which boat size ? So you dont have any work with for maintenance ?

What about the shrinking effect ?? Or the aging and life time you experience (related to the nautical miles having sailed) ?

 

They are on a Corsair Sprint 750 Livingston Jamaica. No real miles on the boat, though it goes out 1-2 times a week. Right now they are about 3 years old and still look like new.

No shrinkage, maybe a few mm of creep a year. I just retune the boat every year when we redo the bottom.

 

I have Coligo shrouds on my Hammerhead 34 trimaran. I went with wire when I replaced the forestay because it has a roller furler on it. I also went with wire for the diamond stays because I was concerned about the effect of creep on the mast integrity.

There was a lot of creep the first year, but there hasn't been much since then. Now that I have some experience with them, I think you might be able to consider them for the diamonds, but you'd need to pay a lot of attention to them initially. If the shrouds are too loose, it just means the mast leans a bit to leeward, but if the diamonds are too loose, you could break the mast. However, I think you'd be able to see the mast starting to bend, then tighten the windward side, tack and do the other side.

I definitely like the idea that the rigging isn't subject to unseen corrosion, like wire rigging.

 

Happy man you got a Hammerhead Very rare Chris White's design.

Interesting insights...

What method / configuration you installed you can re-tension the stays and shrouds easily ?

Such kind ?


I think we again can learn from the "old rigs" on tall ships and splicing becomes an important skill again, right ?


Is the "lashing method" a very time intensive work instead screwing with turnbuckles ?


About this question there is a thread on the forum of Sailnet:
"How to tension synthetic rigging with lashing"

... and a video with a specialist of Colligo Marines explaining:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DZuF5fcDTXo

Yes, that's my own attitude, too... and my motive to take a look at this topic. Even repairings, e.g. emergency rig would be more easy to handle. And material in reserves for replacements can be stored more easily, too. - Who has heavy weighted and space consuming steel wires on board for defect shrouds and stays ? I'd say nobody on smaller yachts.

Especially if you are sailing high speed boats in the range of 20 knots it would need continuously check of the whole rig (standing + running). And on long distance sailing or even "living on board" this steadily checking can become time intensive and gets on one nerves.

 

Colligo manual for lashing shrouds...

The Colligo manual for lashing shrouds has a new URL for downloading the PDF...
https://www.colligomarine.com/s/lashing_line_tie_ver_1_1.pdf

The photos are made of a synthetic rig on a Farrier F32RX Trimaran

As there pops up a "security warning" clicking on the download link it seems Firefox browser doesnt recognize this address as safely source you can download it as attachment directly from here.

 

Personally I don't like lashings on larger boats. The amount of tension they need becomes difficult to mirror on the opposite side. I use synthetic shrouds and turnbuckles.

 

Definitely a cruiser and not a racer, though. Probably comparable performance to an F24

Yes, those kind, with deadeyes.

The shrouds are easily tensioned. When they were first installed, we took the tails to the main winches on the cabin top to tension them. Now, when sailing I go to the leeward ama and take in the slack by hand & tie it off. Then tack and do the same to the other side.

I had a professional rigger install the shrouds. I didn't have to do any splicing myself. But if you don't allow for enough stretch at the start, then you could end up having the deadeyes come together and have to shorten the shrouds to allow for more creep.

I don't think it takes any longer than a turnbuckle. With a turnbuckle, you have to take off the rigging tape and the cotter rings. You need a tool to turn the turnbuckle. Then you need to reinstall the cotter rings and tape everything back up. That's a lot of fiddly stuff to do, although it doesn't have to be done while sailing.

With the deadeyes, you are looking at untying the tail, pulling the lashing tight by hand, and tying it off again. I'm not sure that takes much more time than adjusting a turnbuckle.

Synthetic rigging is certainly the way to go for onboard replacement. You could cut and splice it onboard, and you could use the same stock for any of the stays. With wire, you'd be looking at having to have the spares made up ahead of time specifically for each stay. They'd be heavier and a lot more difficult to store.