BillyGoatGruff wrote: ↑Thu Jun 28, 2018 7:03 am
I disagree, sleeving is essential for kitesuring lines. Where the knot connects to the kite you get salt and sand in the knot and movement. My lines have just been changed and the sleeving had worn through to the while dyneema, without that sleeving the lines would have snapped long ago. The reason ALL the manufacturers use sleeving is to prevent salt water wear.
That's odd. Do you leave your lines connected to the kite? I disconnect mine and wash the bar and lines in fresh water after every use. The only lines that have ever worn or broke are the old sheathed ones.
Some manufacturers use sleeving. Ozone sleeves at the kite end but not at the bar end. A lot of manufacturers use 3mm dyneema pig tails. They serve the same purpose as sleeving but are more compatible with splicing, which is much better. Pig tails make your lines adjustable (if you make them right) which is highly desirable. It's almost impossible to make lines and get them all exactly the same length. The amount of variation and stretch you get over 20-25m length is not negligible. It's easy to tune line lengths by moving knots in a pig tail.
It's easy enough to sheath lines, but you have to sew the sleeving into place. Sleeving can be done with splicing but it's a pain. The sleeving has to be anchored
There was a fashion to double splice lines for a while. You would insert a second piece of dyneema inside the loop and the bury then splice it into place. It's easy enough to do, but all it really achieves is increasing the diameter of the line. The main piece of line is still exposed to all the wear and tear.
I just did an experimental reverse double splice sheath where I inserted the main line inside a second length, leaving a couple of short tails on the sheath part that get buried back down inside the main line. It's then a relatively simple matter to splice the line and put a big chunk of the double splice inside the bury. That solves the problem of having to sew the sleeving. It does end up with a very thick bury. You would have to do a fair bit of work on tapering the double bury to avoid a weak edge. If you could do all that we wouldn't be having this discussion.