Jim wrote:
Annie,
What kind of cordage do you plan to use on Fanshi? In my photographs of Badger taken in 1992, it looks like you were using, for lack of the correct term, synthetic hemp. The colour goes well with the rest of the boat. I know that builders of replicas of "traditional" boats use it for consistency.
Jim, I should love to use 'polyester hemp', if only for the joy of splicing it. We used 'polypropylene hemp' on Badger, and I really liked it, but it wouldn't cope with the UV in Aotearoa. However, both of them proved well beyond budget, because nobody makes that sort of cordage here, but I should have to pay import duty on any that I ordered, on the grounds that 'ít's rope and we make rope in this country'. As well as import duty there is GST to pay, and that includes the packaging and insurance, if any. Then you have to pay the Customs for doing what I would have thought is the job that they are already paid for, ie assessing the value of the goods. And then you pay GST on that. It would probably double the price of the rope which is already considerably more expensive than the local yacht braid.
So, the short answer is: local polyester yacht braid. No doubt it will do the job, but it's a long way from Marlow quality and, for me, impossible to splice.