Step salsa down in size.

[Brion Toss]

Hi again,
I do a palm-and-needle whipping, two if I expect the lead one to see much chafe, then milk the rope firmly down the standing part, and make a series of "invisible" stitches, working away from the whipping. Very important not to make either rope bunch up. Most of the buried tail is not stitched to, so the covering rope can stretch out and compress. Sort of like the tail on a Whoopee sling, where you put the bearing at the head of the splice, and let the rope stretch out on the tail.
Fair leads,
Brion Toss

[Stumble]

Brion,

So you would just use the whipping to smooth the transition?

The major issue is that the line has to be able to run through a Harken 40 fiddle so the line is already right at the maximum line size, really it's already too big. But it's also the largest block that will fit inside the boom so there isn't much I can do about that except for changing down the line size. An abrupt increase in thickness is going to cause all sorts of issues, particularly if it increases line size beyond maximum block size.

[Brion Toss]

Hi again,
If the tackle cannot be proportioned such that the transition avoids hitting the block regularly, you might try removing half the strands, burying them, and whipping down the rest with fine Spectra twine. If you remove alternating left-and right-laid strands, it will leave you with a coherent 6-strand braid, and you might be able to insert that. Alternatively, you could try whipping the end of that reduced braid to the surface of the core strand -- its diameter will be less, and should enter the block about as smoothly as a buried tail, and provide a ramp for a fairer entry for the full-diameter section behind it. I rather favor this version, and hope you will try it. Even a full-diameter stop has shown great success going into rather small blocks, without chafing or binding.
Fair leads,
Brion

[Stumble]

I'll give it a try tonight and see how it goes. Pics to follow.

[Stumble]

So I tried just burying the amsteel and whipping it, but it is far too large to fit. After looking at it again the real issue is in the system there is a Ronstan 30mm block that had a max line size of 6mm so there is no way this is going to work, even with tapering. I am going to have to replace the block with something larger.

It isn't shown, but I did a second whipping over the first to lock down the fuzz on the end of the salsa. It isn't even close to fitting inside the 30mm block.

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Rebuilding main sheet

[Brion Toss]

Hi again,
Sounds like the Rigger's Curse: Large rope and small blocks to you. 30mm blocks are typically used for a maximum line diameter of 5/16" (8mm), so your Salsa was fat, even before the insertion of the Spectra. One option is bigger blocks, but you might consider a different configuration, like hanging your blocks on a long pendant, anchored at the gooseneck. With this you might be able to proportion your tackle so that the Salsa never enters the blocks. You'd have the same overall elasticity.
Fair leads,
Brion

[Stumble]

I went ahead and upgraded the 30mm to a 40mm block which has helped a lot. The biggest question now is how long of a pennant I can leave of the smaller line.

The goal is to always grasp the larger line, but use as much of the 3mm as possible. unfortunately I forgot to measure where the line exits the boom when sheeted in fully, so I am going to have to wait until the boat gets back from the yard to finish this up. I think it's going to be about 12 foot of 3mm With another 12' of 8mm. But it will have to wait.


Brion,

You idea of just burying it is working very well by the way. It looks a little silly since I redid the whipping from these pictures, and stepped the 8mm down over 6 inches, then whipped the entire transition to hold everything in place. It's a little stiff now, but I ink it will soften in time, but even in its current state it travels pretty cleanly.

Sadly the weight savings won't be as high as I was hoping, but still nothing to sneeze at.

[Brion Toss]

Hello again,
The topic of tapered and/or dissimilar running rigging is a hot one these days, as riggers figure out how to get the most out of the newer synthetics. To some extent we are simply trying to approximate how we used to blend wire and rope, notably for halyards, but there are many more variations available. For instance we can pair either covered or uncovered HM to comfortable single- or double-braid Dacron tails, or end-to-end splice "blended" double-braids to Dacron. As an example of the latter, we are currently splicing 5/16" Classic Endura Braid to 3/8" Vintage Dacron tails, for some reef clewlines. The HM portion makes for a more positive reefed position, with thin, light, tough rope, and the splice stops well aft of the belay, so the crew only handles Dacron. The constant-diameter splice we are using has been shown to achieve about 80% efficiency, relative to the strength of the Dacron portion. Other tapered splices have shown efficiencies at or near 100%. More research is needed -- people trust their lives to these splices, so we must be sure of them -- but the possibilities for stronger, lighter, and even cheaper running rigging are many.
Fair leads,
Brion Toss

[allene]

I am a bit late on this and may have mentioned this on SA on a similar thread. But if there is a smaller diameter Salsa then use that and bury the Amsteel the entire length of the Salsa to build the diameter back to what you want. This is what I do with my halyard although I am using Tenex instead of Salsa. Tenex of course is polyester but I don't need it for the strength. I am splicing 3/8 Tenex to 3/16 Amsteel. I have several season on it. It was discussed on this forum back when I was first replacing my wire halyard with the Amsteel. I did not replace the sheaves so needed to keep the Amsteel small. I can now report that this has worked fine although I do remove some of the Amsteel each season to get a clean section going over the sheave.

[Brion Toss]

Hi,
We sometimes do a similar thing with running backstays. Most of the length is HM -- covered or uncovered -- and is inserted several feet into a single-braid Dacron tail. We lead this tail through a single deck block, and thence to a cockpit winch, and the bury is far enough that the HM is wrapped around the winch at least 3 times by the time the load comes on. The rest of the tail is empty making things lighter, cheaper, and easier to handle when the runner is slacked on the lee side.
Recent tests have shown that we don't need to worry about having the HM on the winch for security,but with the HM compressed inside things are arguably stronger. Whether or not to bury it that far might depend just on how much room there is in the tailer on the winch.
If the HM is of the covered variety, we strip the cover just below the insertion into the tail, which in turn is positioned so that it remains clear of the deck block.
Fair leads,
Brion Toss