Mainsheet recommendations

PMADONNA

Member
I am a club racer looking at new mainsheets, mine is Polilite going on 10 years old. Anybody use Marlow fusion, twice the price but I HATE knots. I make enough mistakes on my own without equipment problems. will it have less knots?
 
I absolutely love the my yellow rooster main sheet. I do have to replace it almost every couple of months, then again I do sail almost 4 days a week.
 
Yellow rooster is really good. Not sure why you're replacing it so often. Mine will go at least 100 sailing days and really do not see much deterioration. Will kink more when old but really still less "kinky" than most other mainsheets I tried.
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Agree with the above. I have had my Rooster sheet for ten years by now. I haven't kept count, but this amounts to more than 100 outings.
 
The stiffer the rope, the less it will kink spontaneously. This is mostly a function of the construction and much less of the material. Rooster Polilite uses a smart construction with inexpensive materials; however, I used an even cheaper Marlow Excel Pro sheet for many years and didn't notice any significant difference in handling, as it was simply stiff enough.

More expensive ropes like Excel Fusion use lower-stretch fibres as they're intended for higher-load applications and/or to be tapered. They don't make much sense on a Laser. That said, I now have a Gottifredi Maffioli Superswift sheet, which works fine, but it's because I got a ton of it for several Lightning spinnaker sheets anyway.

I do have to replace it almost every couple of months, then again I do sail almost 4 days a week.
As the ratchet block is really the only thing that wears out the sheet, you must have one that is a real rope killer. Do you really use one sheet fewer than forty times, even after end-for-ending it?
 
I have a ronstan block. It definitely wears on the main sheet more than normal.
I think I know which model you have but you can confirm anyway:

RF46100.jpg RF62100.jpg 010.jpg 011.jpg
 
My Rooster mainsheet, combined with the "Ronstan/Frederickson" block, are the two best things I ever did for my Laser. Over fifteen years now, countless days, and not a hint of shred or wear on that sheet. Something sounds strange about that much wear, "Lasersailor."
 
My Rooster mainsheet, combined with the "Ronstan/Frederickson" block, are the two best things I ever did for my Laser. Over fifteen years now, countless days, and not a hint of shred or wear on that sheet. Something sounds strange about that much wear, "Lasersailor."

Ditto for me.
 
Hmm... I guess I'm behind the times, I used to run nothing but Harken blocks on Laser #2069, and they performed well, but I wasn't racing against anyone except Father Time. He can be a mean competitor under adverse conditions, particularly when you're miles offshore and you're running outta daylight, LOL. :eek:
 

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