Pop top shockcord

[Andrew]

Gday everyone, hope you had good weekends

I'm doing a bit of boat maintenance and am up to replacing the pop-top shock-cord. My boat never had one, so raising/lowering it takes a few more weetbix in the morning, and not getting any younger. (A search of pop-top doesn't work as there's "too many results" and "pop-top shockcord" got one hit about a rudders shockcord)

So was wondering what your setups look like (and/or any links to the topic)

Attached poptop shockcord imaginings and a photos of my poptop mechanism.

Cheers

[Dr. Peter]

Won't help you, Andrew. I bolted my pop-top down. Too much of the green making its way below.

[Yara50]

I am afraid you will just have to keep eating the weeties. The shock cord is just a single length on each side, to help the strut slide along the track as you lift. The force is small and has negligible effect on the lifting weight.
With my African origin, I use my head to hold it up centrally while locking the slides in place.

[Andrew]

Thanks, at least helping the end to slide in would make a difference.
bought 6mm shockcord and some fittings to try out a 2:1 system ,,

so far haven't had much or any noticeable water get under the poptop when it's down in strong winds , the poptop coaming seems to stop most/all of it. There's also a soft plastic (factory fitted?) edge on the poptop, this may seat it a bit better. It's sometimes raised when sailing in no-spray conditions, makes the boat seem alot bigger like that. maybe it's relatively calm behind the barrier reef, capes and islands up here.

At present the poptop has two hold downs at the aft end only..ive been holding the front down with rope between the deck handrails if windy/towing,

cheers