Repair & maintenance: Wire main halyard snapped

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Wire main halyard snapped

Printed From: Yachts and Yachting Online
Category: General
Forum Name: Repair & maintenance
Forum Discription: Questions & tips on the subject
URL: http://www.yachtsandyachting.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=11607
Printed Date: 13 May 25 at 10:19pm
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Topic: Wire main halyard snapped

Posted By: GybeFunny
Subject: Wire main halyard snapped
Date Posted: 18 Aug 14 at 1:22pm

I currently have a wire halyard on my Scorpion that I hook onto a sharks teeth rack when hoisted. Over the last few years I have broken a few halyards as the wire frays by the joint to the ferrule at the top. I suspect it is because the ferrule is being held at the mast head at a funny angle, I suspected this on an old halyard and now I use the next lowest sharks tooth which I had hoped would prevent the ferrule ending up on the sheave at the top and hence fix it but it hasnt. It is currently frayed so I find myself with a few alternatives:

1 - Get a replacement wire halyard made up

2 - Replace the wire part with uncovered dyneema of the same length and use the existing sharks teeth (has anyone ever done this before?)

3 - Switch to a covered dyneema halyard and change my sharks teeth for a cleat

I like the wire halyard as it is easy to hoist, doesnt stretch and it has never failed completely on me (I always notice a few strands have frayed when lowering and replace straight away). I dont think I have ever seen anyone using uncovered dyneema on sharks teeth so I dont even know if that is possible. I have used a covered dyneema halyard on an RS200 and I never liked having to pull it up so hard to get all the stretch out each time and having to move the halyard on a bit every few months as the rope frayed where it was cleated.

Any opinions on what i should do?

Thanks.

Replies:

Posted By: Granite
Date Posted: 18 Aug 14 at 1:28pm

I use uncovered dynema with a loop onto a sharks tooth rack, and it seems to work fine. I replaced the first one after about four years. I use it as a 2:1 and the top 10cm has the cover left on to protect it around the sheave when hoisted.

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If it doesn't break it's too heavy; if it does it wasn't built right

Posted By: GybeFunny
Date Posted: 18 Aug 14 at 1:37pm

Thanks Granite, that is good to hear.

My wire halyard is 2.5mm thick, how thick is your uncovered dyneema, 3mm, 4mm? I like the idea of covering the rope that ends up bent over the sheave at the top of the mast but how do you ensure that the transition between uncovered and covered is smooth enough to not get jammed in the sheave, is there some kind of special splice where you taper it somehow?

Posted By: Paramedic
Date Posted: 26 Aug 14 at 6:27pm

bit late on this, but 2mm will be fine. Make it up aiming to get it on the top of the rack when new as it does shrink as the rope twists and bunches.

When you splice allow for the fact that when you splice the rope you will lose length when you send the tail up the middle to terminate it.

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Posted By: GybeFunny
Date Posted: 27 Aug 14 at 12:15pm

Thanks for the tips, I have some 3mm dyneema lying around so will use that. I will have to see what I can do about adding a cover to the top 10cm.

Posted By: Granite
Date Posted: 27 Aug 14 at 1:33pm

I think that I used 3mm D12. To make the cover for the top section I stripped the cover off some covered spectra, probably 4mm threaded it over the long D12 I used for the haliard, and just burried the end in the same way I would have done if I was tapering a bit of covered spectra.

As I do it 2:1 I have a knot at the top of the mast so I could adjust the length slightly to get it to work.

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If it doesn't break it's too heavy; if it does it wasn't built right

Posted By: GybeFunny
Date Posted: 27 Aug 14 at 2:18pm

Thanks Granite