Roller shroud protectors

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Calico Jack

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Wow, am I surprised how much folk charge for new lengths of roller shroud protectors for 6mm plus shroud wire. Up to 15 quid for 1.5mt!

Anyone found a supplier that sell these at good prices??
 
Straight and rigid ABS/PVC pipe is readily available in suitable sizes.
Just figure a way to split it.
Shouldn't be too hard to build a wooden tool with a firmly inserted blade (Stanley?) that you can draw the tube through to split it?
 
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What exactly does it do? Can you do a cost - benefit analysis? So much wear reduced x cost of new sail perhaps, or milliseconds off tacking time?
 
Calico Jack said:
Wow, am I surprised how much folk charge for new lengths of roller shroud protectors for 6mm plus shroud wire. Up to 15 quid for 1.5mt!
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But, it is a marine product and has a special value; a bit like wedding stuff

How do you use these highly crafted bits of plastic? I've never seen them on a boat.
 
Sandy said:
But, it is a marine product and has a special value; a bit like wedding stuff

How do you use these highly crafted bits of plastic? I've never seen them on a boat.
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You're not wrong there Sandy.

They clip onto the baby stay, and are molded in a way that helps them to swivel on the stay helping to avoid genoa snag and wear.
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jdc said:
What exactly does it do? Can you do a cost - benefit analysis? So much wear reduced x cost of new sail perhaps, or milliseconds off tacking time?
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It helps the genoa and clew roll off the baby stay. When you're solo, and the genoa is particularly large on a Cobra 750, anything that helps avoid the need to leave the cock pit to un-snag the clew is a good thing.
 
Calico Jack said:
It helps the genoa and clew roll off the baby stay. When you're solo, and the genoa is particularly large on a Cobra 750, anything that helps avoid the need to leave the cock pit to un-snag the clew is a good thing.
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Thanks for the information. My current boat does not have a baby stay. I do a lot of single handed sailing and usually roll in the genoa (140%) in a few turns if the air is light.
 
Ah, so not shroud protectors at all. I completely get, and sympathise with, the need to help the Genoa around the inner forestay, but in my case I have a cutter rig so have the staysail hoisted. Tacking is a bu££er otherwise.
 
I found some plastic water pipe in a French DIY store of an internal diameter that would allow the swage to pass through but not the rigging screw. It is still in good condition after 5 or 6 years.
 
Mine fit too tightly to actually roll, but they serve a useful function in reducing wear on the jib sheets as they slide over the stays when tacking.
 
I have them on my main shrouds but not on the babystay. To avoid the genoa clew snagging on the babystay I use a double length genoa sheet tied to the clew with a bowline in the centre of the sheet. No snagging on the babystay BUT when tieing the bowline fit 3 or 4 short lengths of expendable rope in the bowline so it can be easily untied by dragging or cutting these out - otherwise it's very difficult to untie the bowline.
 
Personally I don't like the lower end of the shrouds being hidden from view.

These covers are often fitted with a small washer at the lower end to allow them to rotate on the swaged fitting even more easily.

Can be terrible if you lift them on a boat to inspect when they've not been lifted for a while. Manky, green yukky old sea water often dribbles out...

Local rigger suggested the washers cut into the shrouds slightly as well - I guess easily possible with dried salt water sitting there.

I seem to be in the minority in this thread but when I had new lower shrouds made and the rigger mistakenly fitted covers, those lowers were replaced with non covered shrouds the next time I was at the boat.

Apologies to the original poster for digressing and not suggesting a better place to source these covers.
 
And now found that the roller version is more expensive...

At least the Foxes website shows both the cheaper cover version and the more expensive rolling version on the same page, as well as the large rollers to help the genoa round.

Shroud Covers & Boots

Seems like both look similar from the outside but perhaps only one has the ribs inside.
 
"essentially useless" ?? in my experience they have helped a great deal.

Thanks to others for taking the time to look. The usual shroud covers unfortunately don't spin on the shrouds so well
 
I have the snap on variety. Used to have them on the cap shrouds and lowers but have removed one lot.

If you have a genoa with c125% overlap, or larger, I think they are useful. They do rattle in strong winds, which can be very annoying, it helps to put tape around the wire, which means they then don't spin so well, However, even if they stick, they are kinder to the foresail than a bare wire and less likely to snag.

.
 
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