Agreed
Alan, I agree that the Brummel/Lockstitch short tail splice has been a reliable splice for many applications. It was the first splice developed for the new materials. Good call on the routine replacement of the Amsteel, many people think that the stuff lasts forever!
You might ask your rigger about going to Vectran for the new stay, to get away from the creep of Spectra. PBO is good stuff for standing rigging if you can afford it *pop The high-end stuff is going back to thimbles spliced in the eyes to match the dimensions of marine eyes so the same mast fittings and pins will work. The thimble also increases the radius of the eye, allowing smaller diameter rope to be used. When I was at Samson for "Riggers University" they told us that for ultimate strength, the Brummel splices and 2-2 1/2 fid splices had seen a higher failure rate than a simple 3 fid bury of the tail. The way I see it, I should give my customer what I believe to be the highest strength, lowest failure rate splice I can manage (besides which, the long bury splice is easy for me). Most rope is rated with spliced ends (they need an eye to pull to destruction. If the splice fails before the main part of the rope, the splice is the limiting factor for strength ratings. The long tail, long taper splice gives higher ratings for the same diameter. As the load is applied to the rope a Brummel or lockstitch puts a point load on the rope where the lay is distorted, and the splice fails at that point. High tech rope gets it's strength from long chain molecules, over time the molecules shear apart and the rope becomes weaker. Small radius bends under load (like a small eye on a shackle or a Brummel) accelerate the process. This was a big problem with Kevlar rope. The Kevlar doesn't like to turn corners and is so strong the rope slowly cuts itself inside the splice. Standing rigging (including running backstays) have to be oversize to get good service life. An issue with some of the high-tech ropes is UV resistance. Spectra has a UV resistant coating when it is used without a cover. The rope is built of 1000's of filaments then the coating is applied. If unprotected filaments are exposed by the splicing process, those filaments fail very quickly. When I do an exposed Spectra splice, I re-coat the eye and the standing part back to the 4 fid line, to insure the splice is UV protected. Strangely enough, it is not UV that rots the rope, it is oxygen and UV combined. Untreated Spectra is not effected by UV in space, since there is no oxygen to start the reaction. As the runners on customer boats with the old splice reach the end of their service life (3-7 years), I'm using the new splice. In many cases the diameter we used even 5 years ago can be reduced since we know that the line should be replaced in 3-5 years anyway. The only real way to size the line is to measure the loads on the rig with a load cell and work from there. If you are willing to replace the lines every year, frighteningly small diameters can be used. In Regatta Braid, ultimate strength is not an issue and any of the 12 strand braid splices should be fine.
