Rigging 5 min read
Refitting a J/92s cockpit: XTS clutches and a cascade vang
Rebuilding a J/92s cockpit: Spinlock XTS clutches and a Dyneema cascade vang for more power and a cleaner, more ergonomic deck layout.
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Rigging 3 min read
Re-running Dyneema halyards: Marlow D2 Racing on a J/92s
Re-running the halyards of a J/92s on Lake Geneva in Marlow D2 Racing 8 mm: why size down, the colour logic, and terminations you can't drop overboard.
On Jamais, a 2008 J/92s on Lake Geneva, the old halyards — probably the originals — were 10 to 12 mm polyester and stretched under load. They were re-run in Marlow D2 Racing 8 mm: low stretch, a firm grip in the clutch. The rope choice is the easy part; the thought went into two things — the colour logic, and terminations you can’t drop overboard.
Why 8 mm is enough
The old lines were 10 or 12 mm — thick, because polyester needs section to resist stretch. The new Marlow D2 Racing 78 8 mm carries a Dyneema SK78 core with an average break load around 3490 kg. That is far beyond the working loads on a boat this size, so dropping two or three millimetres of diameter costs nothing in safety while gaining low stretch, less weight aloft and easier handling. The pre-stretched core kills the elongation; the polyester cover grips in the clutch.
Colour logic: work-often vs leave-set
The halyards aren’t handled the same way, so they aren’t the same colour.
- Main and jib — same colour. With the furler, the jib halyard stays up: the sail rolls away rather than dropping, and the main halyard is set once at hoist. These are lines you leave alone under way, so a shared colour is fine.
- Gennaker — orange. This is the halyard you actively work: hoisted and dropped at a mark rounding, often under pressure. A distinct colour lets the hand find the right line instantly, without reading.
Terminations you can’t lose
Textile wherever textile will do — lighter, and nothing metallic swinging to mark the deck or the mast.
- Gennaker tack — a Wichard quick-release snap shackle, already aboard and reused. The quick-release matters: if the gennaker has to be depowered fast, the tack can be blown in one pull.
- Gennaker halyard — a soft shackle. The one risk with a textile shackle is dropping it when it’s open. The fix: one end is passed around the halyard’s splice and back through the soft shackle itself, so it stays permanently captive — the weight saving of textile, without the risk of losing it overboard.
FAQ
What halyard diameter for a J/92s? 8 mm with a Dyneema core covers main, jib and gennaker. At ~3490 kg average break load it keeps a wide margin; the old 10–12 mm polyester was oversized just to fight stretch.
Why different colours? So the halyard you actively work — the gennaker — is identifiable at a glance, while the set-and-forget halyards share a colour.
Why a soft shackle you can’t drop? Passed around the splice and back through itself, it stays captive on the halyard: textile’s weight saving without losing it overboard.
This re-rigging is part of Jamais’s logbook. See also rig tuning and the cockpit and vang refit.
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