by Guest » Fri Nov 02, 2001 10:55 am
Harris, I too have considered replacing the stock 3-strand line with a "high-tech" braided line. Since my board is presently out of the boat for the winter (note my earlier post), I plan to replace the short piece of line that is attached to the board to pull it down. I thought about going with a braided line, however...my experience is that three-strand deacron is more resistant to chafe than a braided line would be, so I'm leaning toward using three-strand. I still have all the original fittings in my cb control line system, and I am not sure that you will benefit enough from replacing the blocks and lines with say, ball-bearing blocks and Kevlar lines. My board "jams" at times if I pull it all the way up (I'm on a mooring and normally leave the board about 1/3 down) when this happens I can actually pull the top of the cuddy down a bit with the line that pulls the board down, so I don't think that the blocks are causing friction. The real problem became clear when I removed the board, it rubs against the sides of the trunk on the top forward corner of the board. I will sand/grind this area a bit to reduce this. Also, I have found that the board will "jam" while sailing due to the fact that it will move (swing) slightly side to side, if I turn the boat into the wind a bit to take the pressure off the sails (and the board) the cb will "suddenly" unjamb.
Rod Johnson, "SUNBIRD" (rjohnson24-at-juno.com)