International Telstar Owners Association

I have some wear on the ama control lines and need to replace them while the boat in on the hard. Anyone done that and are there any suggestions?

John

Nothing special - I just matched what was there when I did the replacement a couple years ago. I took one out to get the length and brought it to West Marine to match size. I did add a bungee cord from the middle of the cable to the center hull so when the lines go slack (folding in) the cables and lines stay out of the way. I had seen it on an old post a few years back and it works like a charm. Lasted at least three seasons so far but I should look to replace them this year before I launch. Marina just opened this week. They had 2' of ice at the fuel dock location this year on the same day they opened last year.

Here is a picture of the method to hold the ama line and cables out of the water in the folded position. I did the same on my boat.
gary g.

Yes, I have to clean the wires very time I go down to clean the bottom. I will try to match your design. What did you use at the outboard end to fasten the loop in the line? i assume something that will not rust.

I found that the long line is about 22 feet and the short one is 14 feet. Length is not critical. I used 3/8th line for both, but got different colors to make identification easier. I ran a messenger line to ensure that I kept the path through the blocks. They lasted over 7 years, so I cannot complain. I used XLS, which is what was used before. as one is hand tightened and the other is hard tightened with the winch and then tension is kept by the clutch, it did not seem necessary to go to expensive core line to reduce stretch.

I also replaced the line that pulls up the rudder. it is 5/16ths. It is about 5 feet. The block to which it connects is on a spring, so it will disappear if you do not tie it down. it is easy to reach, however. The real secret here is to tie the knot at the right length that the rudder will come all the way down when pulled. It takes some experimentation to get it right. The "pull up" line was not worn.

John

Actually the picture I showed was from another post. I used nylon shock chord hooks on both ends to keep the wire out of the water.

gary g.

I replaced both lower rudder control lines with dyneema years ago. Much stronger and it's water and UV resistant. It might not be a bad idea to enlarge the holes where these lines go thru. Abrasion can be a problem too.

I went for a day sail today and anchored off Ft. Myers Beach and discovered that the port side ama control cable had parted. This is the ss cable that is dead-ended at both ends, not the tensioning cable. I was not sure of the purpose of this cable --is it there to keep the fore and aft ama ends in sync when opening/retracting the ama? I sailed home without it and everything seems fine. -Mark Z, Nice Tri, #323

It's also acting as a secondary stop to keep everything in sync.

We're down in Florida now. Hoping to start working on the boat once the wind dies down a drop. Looks like Wednesday & Thursday could work.

Ron
I am interested in your use of dyneema. I want to use it for this application and more for the rudder lines. Everything I read about it states knots are are next to impossible. How do you join it?
Jerry

Dyneema, while having very little stretch once loaded heavily, does require a heavy initial load in order to take a set, that is to say, to allow the fibers that make up the line to form the most compact lay possible. The fibers themselves have almost zero stretch. High tech boats with Dyneema rigging will retension the rig several times after applying sailing loads until the Dyneema sets and becomes stronger than steel and with less stretch. Add to that, as you implied, uncovered Dyneema is very slippery and tends to untie itself until heavily loaded. I used Spectra covered lines for my ama control lines for this reason and created the knots with the amas slightly retracted so that upon extension, the knots were loaded tight. The tensioning helps to lock the knots in permanently. If you are really good at splicing uncovered Dyneema, you could create the splice this way too, loading it after both sides are made up. -Mark Z, Nice Tri, #323