Ron,
most polymers become brittle because of a loss of the volitile hydrocarbons
they contain,
the higher the temp generally the faster the loss of these hydrocarbons.
Depending on the
material you MAY actually make a polymer based component harder by boiling
it and then cooling it.
UV light can and does play a part here too, I suppose you could put some
SPF50 on your outriggers
to block those UV's, but seriously some of the new clear films block 99% of
UV which would fix
the issue if it is UV related
craig
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