PROtect Tapes specialises in making products to combat chafing, friction, abrasion, scratches, damage, ageing and wear on board boats by working with specialists in polymers, technical films and adhesives, as well as professional sailors. I trialled two products on board my Figaro: Skid and LoopX.

Skid is the same product you will find fitted on the cockpit floors of most TP52s and other grand-prix raceboats. While unforgiving on the knees, it is a fantastically durable grip tape that, in the five months I have been testing it, hasn’t lost any of its ‘grippiness’. It sticks well to the cockpit floor and is genuinely of the highest quality.

The product I was most impressed with, however, and perhaps the company’s most innovative, is its reinvention of the shackle. Lightweight and super-strong, the LoopX (pictured) is also a great and simple replacement for the soft shackle. To the untrained eye it can seem unfathomable how they are made.

I really liked the ease of application for the LoopX, with no splicing skills required. But perhaps the biggest plus is that it is extrememly lightweight, a big bonus in our offshore racing game – why carry more weight than you need all the way round the course? Plus it looks really cool and racy on board, which I really like!