I am not going to go into great detail on the building of the bridle. Sugarbaker did a phenomenal job with this in his "B'zar 2011 build thread".
I will try to give just details that are convenient to have to make a bridle for the Vortex. I've already covered the Up/Down haul lines. that only leaves the in-haul and keeper.
The keeper is so simple! It attaches at each end on the associated line at the distances indicated on the plans with a sheet bend. Each sheet bend adds 1cm of line to the overall length of the keeper line. So, I cut two keepers at 24cm in length.
This just leaves the in-haul. part of this line is actually an attachment to the center-T. In Sugarbakers thread, he covers this really well. Mine is a little bit simpler as I set it up to attach to the spine below the T, wrapped around the stopper ring.
Here are a couple pictures of how I created the center-T anchor.
I then moved to the opposite end where the in-haul attaches to the out-hauls. I started by folding a 7cm loop and tying it off with an overhand knot. I then attached it to the "out-haul" anchor (nail) with a pursik knot.
The Vortex uses a Turbo bridle with a 5cm "turbo" leg. Once the pursik is attached, Mark the line 5cm from the anchor. Now measure out 20cm of line from the mark. Fold the line in half and tie an overhand to create a "pigtail" for the fly lines to attach to at the mark. Don't forget the little overhand knot at the end of the pigtail. This picture is actually of the completed two lines. Notice that the knot creating the original loop is not in exactly the same position. That is not crucial. What is crucial is where the knot for the turbo is and the knot on the pigtail. Both need to be in identical positions on the pair of lines.
Now that the turbo is created, measure and additional 64.5cm and mark the line. Then measure from the turbo knot 76.5cm and cut the line there. Now fold the line at the 64.5cm mark and tie and overhand knot, forming a loop with the 64.5cm mark at the center. This will be used to attach the in-haul to the center-t pigtails on the middle knot.
Here is what it should look like if everything works out.
Now to the stand-offs. The plans clearly state that they need to be 25cm and 26cm from the sail to spreader. This is inclusive of all fittings and caps. The process I used to figure out how long the 3mm rods needed to be was as follows.
I first needed to determine how much extra length each component added to the overall length of the stand-off. I began by placing a piece of blue tape at a known distance from the end of the rod.
I then added the component to the end of the rod and noted how far the tape had moved. For instance, the Jaco connector adds 6mm.
I repeated this process with the Vinyl end cap and the APA stand-off connector for the spreader. The total added by these pieces was 11mm. So I then cut each stand-off to the appropriate length. Ex. 26cm standoff was cut to 249mm.
Once each was cut, I assembled the stand-offs and verified the final length of each for accuracy. Here is a "25cm" stand-off. Note that the measurement needed to be from where the Jaco fitting sits on the sail.
Now just attach the bridal and mount the stand-offs.
The last little detail to finish the Vortex is to place a "Moonie Tape" rub patch behind the upper spreader on the sail at the point where it crosses the spine.
Thank You all so much for following this thread. It has been a lot of fun!
I hope many of you will post your projects here when finished.
If you find errors, please let me know. I will do what I can to fix them quickly!
Here is one lat picture for your enjoyment.
