Compatibility Of Dynex Dux With Ss Wire

[John Stone]

Well, it is not that I don't trust dux, I have no experience with it. Keeping the rig up is one area that I want to remain conservative with till I am confident in the system I rely upon for the safety of the boat and the crew. I have visited the Colligo Marine site over the last two years and in fact had several conversations with John Franta. He has been very helpful and informative. However, other than Andy Schell who speaks highly of dux, I am not reading much about folks that have switched to dux and done extensive offshore sailing with it. Maybe they are out there and thrilled with it . . . but I have not come across that info. Like many sailors, I see a lot of advantages to dux. But, I want to have confidence that it will perform to the level required. Since, I don’t have the kind of info I would like to have, it seemed to me that incorporating it into my current wire rig would be a reasonable way to gain firsthand experience with it. Also, the forestaysail stay and the aft intermediates are not, to my thinking, keeping the mast up. They serve more to keep it in column and they work together to do that—the aft intermediates counter the pull of the forestay. So, this seemed like a reasonable plan to incorporate it. With dux as the forestay, I can use the soft hanks that attach the staysail to the forestay. On the headstay I want to be able to unhook sail hanks with one hand—I don’t think you can do that with the dux soft hanks—I use bronze hanks on wire. But, normally, I keep the staysail hooked to the forestay and bagged on deck. Additionally, the dux forestay will be easier to remove and stow when short tacking with the jib. These are just my thoughts and so I continue to look for some input from those that have experience with dux if this is a reasonable approach to incorporate dux into my rig. I usually go to rule one when doing something new—“Do No Harm.” As a regular reader of this forum I continue to be impressed with the quality of information provided. Thanks again.