You can buy a very sturdy stove gimbal for a jet boil out of England for not a lot of $. Well made and all-axis gimbal.I had a boat done with a soft hand 1 or 1.5mm cord instead of 3mm paracord. It took someone a long time, but was really comfortable and held up for at least a decade. I’ve sailed with Paracorded wheels and this one was much more comfortable
This photo is of a stove gimbal that I made, but you can see the wheel too:
I’ve been on boats with all sorts of carbon wheels. Clear coat, glossy AwlGrip, matte AwlGrip, spiral peel ply finish, non-skid stripes, and many others. The grip does help a lot when the conditions are WET! It doesn’t matter what kind of finish is on the wheel, it get’s slippery! Most of the boats that I do the grips on race on the offshore races in SoCal. They’re commonly doing Mexico and Hawaii races, where it’s commonly wet and cold at night. As for the weight, the foam is mostly air. The red covers maybe added a pound between the two, not a factor!
I wonder if soft touch paint would do the trick for that. It's the stuff you find on higher end computer mice, has sort of a rubbery feel and relatively durable. This stuff says it's got UV resistance.
It is not cold at night on a Mexico or Hawaii race. Nor is it particularly wet. I've worn the required single layer of poly and goretex jacket.
Plastidip is an interesting idea. I use it for my mast boot and it has worked extremely well. When I had my mast pulled a couple months ago to get shrouds replaced, the guys at the yard wanted to know who did the mast boot, how it was done, etc. I might consider that for my wheel after the eva foam I have on there now gets beat in a few years.
I can’t give up my source at this time. I’m having a hard time getting it, myself. I’m charging about $500 a wheel for the smaller wheels, up to over $1000 for the big wheels. There’s fair amount of prep work to be done, then applying it, treating the seam, and trimming out the spokes. Along with running around for all the supplies. It takes me a full day to do the small wheels.
that yacht was in for a paint job
Bolt! I tried to talk him out of it, but Sam said the owner wanted it! A light sanding with 150 brings back the original surface color and texture! It’s already pink!
Agreed. I did a wheel back in 1990 and it lasted about 7 years. But back then I could go to my local board shop and get the boom grip from a huge selection. Now I can't find the stuff anymore in lengths and colors and density I want. I did my wheel 2 years ago with some eva foam I had to scrape online to find in a color I didn't want, that is not as dense as the boom grip I used to get, and took about a month to ship.
