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The latesthighstrength,low-weightrigging usesyarnsinstead ofmetal wireor rodSoft rigging for voyagingBY BRIAN HANCOCKRalph NaranjoDuring a break whiledelivering a catamaranin the Baltic Sea thissummer, I took the opportunityto walk the length of themarina in Cuxhaven, a smalltown on the Elbe River in Germany.The boats tied alongsidewere the usual mix of Mom,Pop and dog cruisers all enjoyinga perfect summer sailingthe North Sea.One boat, however, caughtmy eye. The boat itself was nodifferent from the rest; a slabsidedfiberglass monohull withplenty of interior space and aspacious cockpit. It was the rig,and rigging, that held my gaze.Instead of the sturdy looking1:19 wire commonly used onproduction cruisers, this boathad a spindly high-tech mastheld up by some equallyspindly high-tech rigging.I knocked on the hull and atall, handsome German manappeared. We talked about hisrig. He was an engineer, and asailor, and while he acknowledgedthat his boat was no racingmachine, he told me thatthe change in the boat’s rig hadmade a big difference to hissailing pleasure. By his estimationhe had saved about 30percent of the overall weight ofhis original rig. Without allthat extra weight aloft his boatheeled less and more importantlyto him, since he usuallysailed in the North Sea wherethe shallow water kicks up ashort, steep chop, the boatpitched significantly less.This all got me thinking.First it was interesting to onceagain see that new technologiespioneered on the extreme racingedge slowly trickle down tothe rest of us average sailors.And second, I wondered justhow much of an applicationhigh-tech rigging would play inthe sailing pleasure of mostvoyagers. Would there come atime when formerly exotic Vectranshrouds and Spectra runningbackstays were as commonplaceon a small cruisingboat as the now ubiquitousroller furling gear?While racingboats now useso-called “softrigging” on aregular basis,voyaging boatshave been slowerto takeadvantage of thishigh-performanceapproach.www.oceannavigator.com33