Rather impulsively, in 2023, I decided to make a move into Radio Sailing. Practically nothing worked in my big boat toolbox for this part of the sport. Evidently none of my (huge) string and cord collection was going to work . In the flash of the moment I acquired a reel of dyneema to be ready for anything, or so I thought.

That’s it in the photo above. The experienced amongst you will spot my error straight away. It’s a 300m reel – that’s enough for a whole club fleet to use for a hundred years.

It is also 4 braid which gives it a slightly lumpy appearance – I know now that SailsEtc recommend 8-braid lines.

If you have come to radio sailing from another branch of sailing, you’ll realise that you use different size and strength lines for different jobs on the boat. In your first encounter, you may think that all the lines we use are the same size (small).

Not so – explore SailsEtc and try looking at the Sailboat RC website. Sailboat RC carry a stock of four grades of lines – if you buy from them, they come on different colour spools about the same diameter as 5p piece or smaller. In a crowded tool box that’s a good idea, but I’m also thinking is using different colour lines to indicate diameter or strength is a good way to go – see SailsEtc.

This is what Sailboat RC says:-

GREEN spool   0.25mm 18.5kg Topping Lifts

BLUE spool 0.30mm 36kg   Main&Jib Sheets

LIGHT GREY spool 0.70mm 60KG  Drum Sheets 

                                                                        &Jib Foot to magnet    

TRANSPARENT Spool 0.70mm 30kg Rigging all round

The diameter is interesting, but not half as interesting in the line loads indicated for each job.

Generally speaking they only put around 5-10metres on a spool, and frankly that would last a club sailor a lifetime. At that size, you can tuck them anywhere in the toolbox.

If anyone needs 300m of dyneema, give me a call!!