| The Visione Project |
Case Study
Baltic 147ft Retrofit PBO Standing Rigging
The Visione project was completed in late October 2005. futurefibres supplied
a full PBO standing rigging system including forestays, backstays, verticals,
diagonals, and all associated hardware. Hall Spars supplied new, improved
spreaders to accept the futurefibres spreader end system.
The futurefibres US agent, Dave White, managed the rig stepping. Dave
reported that dressing the mast was amazingly quick and simple: “It actually
took only two hours to fit all the rigging components to the mast. Of course,
manoeuvring the PBO spans around is so easy when each piece weighs only
a few kilos.”
Once the mast was stepped in the yacht, the sea trials and rig tuning went
smoothly and Visione left for Bermuda on time. The weight saving involved
in changing the rod package for futurefibres’ PBO was dramatic, as the
figures below show. These figures are not just a comparison of futurefibres
cables versus rods, they represent the actual saving derived from replacing
one complete system by another, including all the hardware such as
turnbuckles, diagonal hangers and forks, forestay foil bearings, forestay rod
strop and fork.
Total weight, rod rigging package 1304.33kg
Total weight, futurefibres PBO package 349.74kg
Total weight saving: 954.59kg
The owner and crew of Visione provided the following feedback: “The helm is
now lighter and more responsive, as well as more forgiving. It simply makes
driving the boat easier. We have certainly seen our upwind performance
improve and the motion of the boat feels softer in a seaway. With the rod
rigging, if you stood on the foredeck going through some chop you could feel
the rig shudder as the boat came off a wave. Since switching to PBO this is
no longer the case.”
The owner is so happy with the results he has enquired about re-rigging
another of his yachts with the futurefibres PBO system.
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