The quiet revolution in rigging

New materials are quietly rewriting yacht racing. From halyards and sheets to standing rigging, synthetic fibers are replacing steel, and changing boat design. Stuart Greenfield asks, “You are not seriously telling me that rope is now stronger than steel?”

It is a reasonable question, usually accompanied by a slightly skeptical look towards a modern race boat covered in soft shackles, lashings, lightweight sheets and several components that appear to have been tied on rather than engineered. The answer depends on what we mean by stronger, what sort of fiber we are discussing and, most importantly, how the complete system has been put together.

The amusing part is that yacht racing accepted this revolution years ago without making much fuss about it. Wire halyards disappeared, low-stretch synthetic sheets became normal, stainless shackles were replaced by loops of woven fiber, and lashings began carrying structural loads that would once have demanded fabricated metal fittings. Because these changes arrived one component at a time, most of us never paused to consider what had happened. – Full story