[TowerTalk] Guyed Tower with Dyneema rope guys

[W4ZW]

Dyneema is great stuff.  Many "A Class" catamaran sailors use this for the
forestays to the mast.  These are the two lines that hold the mast to the
forward points of the two hulls.  It is under enormous pressure under sail
especially under  the forces of a reach or when sailing close hauled.  I use
regular steel stays on my catamaran, mainly because I made them before I
knew about dyneema.  I do use dyneema for the lines on my spinnaker, and
splice in a more manageable (by hand) larger sheet on deck.   Dyneema is
very easy to work with and I've used it here to support the center and both
ends of a wire array, which is either a full wave 80M loop or a 80M Carolina
Windom . It has been up there in the Florida sun and through three
hurricanes over the past 4 years and still looks good.  I check it every
year, and still don't see the need to replace it.

Great stuff, tiny and flexible, yet very strong.

YMMV,


Jon Hamlet, W4ZW

Casey Key Island, FL
"A little piece of paradise in the Gulf of Mexico"