I'm not knocking the job you did Dave, and one should replace the wires way before the extra stiffness becomes a problem, but time has shown that a properly squished nico will never let the wire slip out. The failure point is almost always on the eye side of the nico. But double nico sure FEELS safer! (and its easier to cover the cut end of the wire with a second one instead of getting the first one perfectly placed with no meathooks hanging out...)

feel free to knock me, if there is a better way, I want to know it...
Just a thought...what have been hang gliders experience withwire? How often do they replace them, and how big are the loads compared to beach cats?

thanks

Usually the replacement is about the same. The loads are much higher on a beach cat with the drag of the boat resisting the push of the sails, higher package weight, and generally higher crew weight. Average hang glider weight is about 60 to 80 lbs and you don't see many pilots above 200 lbs. But with the risk of plummeting 8000-10000 feet, people tend to be less casual about how often they refresh the rigging. Most of the gliders these days use ball swage, which works like a nico, its basically a stainless ball with a hole for the wire, and the ball slots into another fitting, instead of having the wire bent into an eye.
BTW, I highly advise any sailor who gets a chance to try hang gliding to go for it. The modern gliders are all destruction tested before new models are certified, and almost everybody has a ballistic (rocket launched) back-up parachute. Right now the open distance record is 437 miles!
Not bad for a 60 lb bundle of cloth and tubes that takes 15 minutes to set up....

The pic in the previous post is John Heiney, (who holds the consecutive loop record, 52 I think), doing a wing stomp, where you sneak up into your buddies blind spot from above, and give his glider a good kick as you go past...the one in this post is mid loop (one handed, of course). The line trailing out from the basetube is for the VG (variable geometry). It basically acts like a boom vang, taking out twist for high speed glide, and adding twist for launch and landing, gives you easier steering and less glide for short landing fields...

How much does a package cost and what is the typical weight? This is something I have always wanted to do..

Rolf, this is the low cost version (homebuilt).
This is how I got my Pilot license. I built this for the Redbull Flugtag contest in 2007.
And BTW - flying your homebuilt "aircraft" is really really cool. <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif" alt="" /> <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" /> <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

Ohmygod, no way I would go airborne higher than 1meter with that one! Very impressive job and initative though. Is that you on the picture?

Yes Rolf, I'm the idiot there. <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />
Sorry for being off-topic but memories came back to me...what a good time we had back then.
This is the take-off ramp, sorry no pics of the actual "flight". <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif" alt="" />
This is a whole new meaning for "flying low cost".

Back to reality--
I have seen 3 new A-cats including the brand-new LR2 go out with new "prestretched" Spectra etc for shrouds and forestays. They weren't prestretched enough. By the next day the A cats had replacement 1x19 steel wires.

Does that little seat on the starboard wing hold a pet monkey? or flying kitten? it looks to small for a human. What sits on the port wing to balance it out?


PS kiddin


PPS - i think the flying fish behind you looks awesome!

do the ball attachments SBFlyer spoke of in Hang Gliding have any place in sailboat rigging? They must be sure...they are betting thier lives on them.
Is there any Ballistic chute we cat sailors can deploy right before a pitchpole? Man I needed one of those several times in my life.
Jake, you and Wouter are the engineers around here, what about it?

There were a few shackles there for awhile that had a hole in the top and a little socket that fit a ball swage, but not much else that I've seen...the big plus of them is that you can make a really aerodynamic sleek fitting because of the small size of the ball, not enough of a gain on a boat to make it worth it to redesign fittings.
Re the flying(?) wing,I was wondering what the bush growing out of the right wingtip was all about...the Tin Can guy might want to talk construction tips with you...