Colligo Synthetic Standing Rigging

by Tim on March 28, 2008

Rope for standing rigging, eh? Yeah, I’m familiar with the concept. It’s obsolete technology, from the era of wooden sailing ships, and it looks something like this:plate56 Apparently, my thinking is somewhat out of date. Modern materials technology is giving new life to "old-school" rigging principles.

Colligo Marine claims that synthetic rigging is cheaper and lighter than conventional wire rigging. It certainly could be easier to service and repair "in the field".

I’m re-reading Patrick O’Brian‘s Master and Commander, and once again I’m amazed at a man-of-war crew’s ability to fabricate almost anything the vessel might need from onboard stores of cordage, spars, and fittings. With Colligo’s Synthetic Systems line of rigging hardware and a quantity of raw Dynex Dux 12-strand line aboard, it’s possible to imagine the crew of a small bluewater cruising sailboat being able to replace—or at least jury-rig—virtually any piece of standing rigging without outside assistance.

I’d be interested in learning more from cruising or racing skippers who have rigged and sailed boats with this system. How does it all work out in the real world?

{ 1 comment… read it below or add one }

Ben May 12, 2009 at 9:12 am

I’ve sailed for years on big traditional boats (schooner, brigs and etc) using modern line (mostly dacron) as both running and standing riggine. I have never seen or heard of a fatigue related failure in 15 years of sailing

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