Tramp re-lace, (three piece) advice, tips

After a cross bar to hull repair I am re-lacing my trampoline.

Taking the lacing out was so easy that re-lacing it has got to be the effort inverse.

Any tips? Is there a sequence, tool, method etc...

Thanks,

Dan
02 H17SE / Sport
San Jose, CA

The 17 doesn't rely so much on tramp tension for it's stiffness, so it's relatively easy to relace.

Start at the front and lace loosely to the back with the center lacing.

Start at the aft corners and lace loosely towards the center.

With gloves on, return to the center lacing and tighten front to back from under the boat. Use your weight to help gain some tension. At the back of the boat, work from the corners to the middle, prop a foot up against the back crossbar to keep the boat from moving as you pull.

Thanks Matt, and by the way congrats on your win in the SF Bay!

I installed and laced it today. When done, it was tight. But I have heard that over-tightening can be a problem. I don't have water-skier forearms and found that the tightness by gloved hands was not satisfactory. So I used one of those jam cleat rope handles to pull the ropes. There is now drum-like tension on the entire trampoline, but probably nothing like a 16 using one of those tramp tightening tools.

Any input on the 17's tramp tightness, and some clever textual way to relate the varying degrees of tightness?

Thanks

Dan
02 H17 SE/Sport

17 tramp tightness is almost a personal thing, since it affects boat performance only to the extent that the water hitting the bulge on the underside (where you're sitting) slows you down.

I guess if you can bounce a quarter off of it (like a taut sheet), it's tight enough. Racing, you spend most of your time on the wing, the front corner of the tramp/hull (light air) or the back corner of the tramp/hull (heavy air downwind).

The boat I borrowed for SF had a looser tramp than I prefer, but there were more important things (like a leaky mast) that needed attention. That boat's tramp rails were also working loose (noticable movement), but again, it's a PITA job to replace those rivits, so it didn't get done.

I like a tight tramp, maybe a carry over from my H16 days. To help with tensioning, I added a gromet kit which doubles the number of gromets that run down the middle. I run two lacings down the center (the original and the second using the new set of gromets). I tighten one then the other a couple to three times. That way you progressively make the tramp tighter and don't even need gloves to do it. I insert my paddle between the set of lacings (from the stern below the tramp) to keep the main and jib sheets on the tramp.