Dan G wrote:
However, Chris does seem to be intimating that it's possible to
structurally damage a glider during a winch launch from overspeeding.
Providing the correct weak is used, that is not possible. Old myths
die hard though.

Apologies - didn't mean to intimate that.

All I was trying to say is that overspeeding is not dangerous per se,
but might become so depending on the condition of your glider, where you
are in the launch and how you fly it. So far as structural damage is
concerned, the only example we have is from an already damaged glider,
so you may well be right that with the correct weak link you're
protected from structural damage.

However, I still refuse to accept overspeeding in the top 1/3 of the
launch because (a) the glider is not designed for it, even if it won't
fall apart, (b) I don't know whether my glider's structure has been
invisibly weakened by past overspeeding, groundloops, etc, and (c) I can
safely do something about it (bye bye cable).

Below that, I'm prepared to try to sort out the situation unless it's
clearly irredeemable.

Of course, much depends on what you mean by overspeeding. 2kt over max
winch is within the margin of error. 20kt over is far too much to live
with all the way to the top.