Advice on material for new trampolines

[Timreyn]

I have an 11 year old Lagoon 570 with what I believe are the original net trampolines. I am told they are F 30x30 materials (30 mm x 30 mm). They are real spongy and when you step on them you sink quite a bit. It is hard to walk on them. I am not sure if they can be tightened but I haven't tried yet. I need advice about what to buy. We are cruisers and the boat is in Croatia. Our sailing plans include extensive sailing, 6 months per year, through Croatia, Montenegro, Greece, and then on to Malta. We will probably sail the Med for three to five years before crossing the Atlantic. I see us sailing the Caribbean for a few years then maybe on the south pacific. I am looking for something comfortable, firm and durable but also good for crossings in potentially rough seas. I am thinking I need to stay with netting but perhaps a 13x13 net. Is there anyone with experience that could recommend this or would one of the porous mesh types be the better choice? I see videos and pictures of Catamarans with both type. Thanks for your advice!

[fxykty]

If just stretched you can tighten it up by tightening the lashings, if room, or simply pulling the excess net into the bolt rope and lashing it with a series of overhand knots. Do this on opposing sides and you’ll have a tight net again. But that’s only worth doing if your net is in good condition otherwise.

We just replaced the trampolines on our cat, though it isn’t a Lagoon, which we think were original at 14 years. The old netting was stretched and strands were starting to break. Seriously scary.

If you do a web search for after market trampoline providers such as https://multihullnets.com/ you’ll get an idea of the range of materials and finishes that are available. The basic factors are comfort vs openness, then appearance, cost and strength. Lagoon should be able to tell you what the minimum openness is for your trampolines. We initially wanted a webbing net for comfort but quickly realised that it wasn’t nearly open enough for our boat.

Especially if you’re going offshore, but maybe that could be the next trampoline after this one, you will appreciate having a trampoline that easily sheds water and doesn’t catch the wind as you go over a wave. But for coastal sailing you can have a less open trampoline that will be more comfortable to walk, sit and lie on. I would think that replacing trampolines every 10 years or so is reasonable.

Our trampolines are relatively large, so windage is a big factor. We’ve ended up with a polyester 22mm woven net, which has reasonable comfort (if we’re lying on it for a longer period of time a towel or cushion keeps the net from imprinting on the skin), good long term strength and the required openness.

[Bean Counter]

Our original nylon nets started perishing at year 6 in the Caribbean, I put my foot through it a couple of times. Nets were really soft too. We replaced with dyneema netting and did it ourselves using a dyneema bolt rope. Not cheap though

Net Systems - Ultra Cross (UC) Silver Knotless Dyneema Netting

[LeeV]

Or contact https://multihullnets.com

[Cat White House]

Bean Counter is correct: Go Dyneema.

[Rapanui]

I have just ordered a trampoline for our Athena through France Trampoline https://france-trampoline.com/en/74-sailing
I did some research on materials and ended up with a 13x13mm mesh in polyester.They also do dynema which is about 50% more expensive. Polyester like dynema has good uv resistance and the mesh is knitted not knotted. Some places offer polyamide which is like nylon and stretchy and less UV resistant, so in my view not good for a big tramp. I paid about 550 Euro delivered. You could get it delivered to your marina in Croatia.

[rom]

Originally Posted by Timreyn

I have an 11 year old Lagoon 570 with what I believe are the original net trampolines. I am told they are F 30x30 materials (30 mm x 30 mm). They are real spongy and when you step on them you sink quite a bit. It is hard to walk on them. I am not sure if they can be tightened but I haven't tried yet. I need advice about what to buy. We are cruisers and the boat is in Croatia. Our sailing plans include extensive sailing, 6 months per year, through Croatia, Montenegro, Greece, and then on to Malta. We will probably sail the Med for three to five years before crossing the Atlantic. I see us sailing the Caribbean for a few years then maybe on the south pacific. I am looking for something comfortable, firm and durable but also good for crossings in potentially rough seas. I am thinking I need to stay with netting but perhaps a 13x13 net. Is there anyone with experience that could recommend this or would one of the porous mesh types be the better choice? I see videos and pictures of Catamarans with both type. Thanks for your advice!

I changed mine and bought a 3030 polyester (from France Trampoline) that is pretty much the same as the original from lagoon factory. I would like mine to be a bit more tight but it is ok. If I were to do it again I would search for the trampoline Outremer uses, it is a diamond mesh, maybe 20x20, looks great, and they do install it very tight !

[fxykty]

Woven polyester nets (and I assume other materials and types) can be pulled as tight as you can manage. We built our own trampolines from 22mm x 22mm woven polyester net, lacing on a 8mm double braid polyester bolt ropes, and individual laces every 4 or 5 squares (yes, a total pain to install 200 or so individual lacings). We used 3mm woven polyester cord for the lacings, looped 4 or 5 times each. The trampolines are bar tight and hardly give at all - much more comfortable to walk on but not as much for lying on, we use cushions now during sundowners.

The net we ordered comes only in black, while our previous nets were white (well, quite grey). It’s so cool at night as it looks like there’s no trampoline there at all!

[travellerw]

I had our trampolines made out of Super Tramp Material. It was what our boat originally came with. Although the material is a tighter woven mesh, it seems to do well shedding the water. Plenty of Island Spirits have circumnavigated with it. The original nets lasted 10 years on our boat and could have gone longer, but having kids aboard made me change them. 2 years of full time down here in the Caribbean and our nets still look brand new. Frankly I have never been on a more comfortable netting material, including webbing based nets.

I originally contacted Multihullnets to have them built, but their prices were astronomical. I ended up having a sail loft in South Africa make them for less than 1/2 the cost (including shipping to the USA). I'm super happy with the results and the nets even came pre-strung with polyester line (in 4 separate sections).

That loft will make you tramps out of anything. If you are interested PM me and I will send their contact info.