On Tue, 05 Jul 2011 06:56:58 -0500, Richard Casady
wrote:

On Tue, 05 Jul 2011 18:45:01 +0700, Bruce in Bangkok
wrote:

On Mon, 04 Jul 2011 23:43:13 -0500, Richard Casady
wrote:

On Mon, 04 Jul 2011 07:39:01 +0700, Bruce
wrote:


As the purpose of the foot rope is to limit the stretch of the foot of
the sail, using a nylon rope would defeat the basic reason for the
roping as nylon rope has up to 40% stretch and it would be impossible
to sew the rope to the sail to do this - it would mean that the foot
would be 40% shorter with tension released.

Just because it can be stretched to 40% elongation with_ some_ amount
of force, doesn't mean that this is magically the real life figure.
Been my experience with 15 to 20 foot daysailers that the bolt ropes,
for all practical purposes, don't stretch much. Maybe an inch or two.
Not six or seven feet.

Casady

Certainly. I was exaggerating in an attempt to make him stop and
think. I think I even gave him a reference to a sail makers supplier
who sells dacron for sail roping. I could dig out a sail makers manual
and give him another reference but I doubt he'd read it.

It seems obviious that the rope and should stretch the same amount or
the stitches would come under strain and probably break, or tear the
cloth.

Casady

Usually you set up the sail with a bit of tension on it and then
stretch the rope pretty tight and then sew them together. The idea is
that when you put tension on the sail it doesn't tear. Most sails
laying loose will show quite a bit of wrinkle along the foot as the
rope contracts with no tension on it.

Actually I'm not so sure that it is needed in this age as roller
reefed mains don't have rope and jibs & etc. don't and the jib on my
last boat was larger then the main.

Cheers,

Bruce
(bruceinbangkokatgmaildotcom)