Halyards

[EdHouston]

My boat has wire to rope halyards jib, mizzen & main, is this common and does anyone have thoughts about wire V rope my concern is for broken wires on the halyards cutting flesh as they are like little razor blades. The wire is I think too long on my boat when fully hoisted all have about six to eight wraps of wire on the winch.

Has anyone else got this configuration?
Has anyone got all rope halyards?
Will the sheaves on the mast head take rope?

Ed
Moonlight Mile

[Henri Hali]

Ed:
I replaced all of my rope/wire halyards a few years ago.
I got tired of discovering new fish hooks when raising my sails.
I dont recall the specific material I replaced it with, but I asked for a synthetic with very low stretch.
Its worked fine for me.

Henri Hali
SV windrider

[SV THIRD DAY]

Ed, I had the same set up on THIRD DAY and replaced all my running rigging with new from cajonrigging.com ....the price was around $650 for every single piece of running rigging on the boat and I've been very happy to get rid of the hand-cutting wire!

[Dale Tanski]

Ed,
Your halyards sound like factory issue.  The long tail on the main halyard is also typical.   It does become a problem if you switch to a self tailing winch.  Has anyone looked at the sheaves up top to see what shape they are?  I had my sticks down for a year and never thought to look, too many other items on the list.  If they are a "V" for the wire, synthetic halyards won't be happy.  I am due for a trip up top and that is on my list to check out.
Good Sailing...   Dale

[Atavist]

I just bought my 365 and mine also had the original wire halyards.... i swapped out the mizzen halyard for an all wrope one fine, the trick was I used a smaller diameter line than i tried to use on the main... when i swapped out the main i tried to use a standard 3/8 halyard only for it to jam at the top... i gave a tug and down came both the new and old halyards.... so up the mast it is to run the new halyard... uh oh... they are indeed v style wire sheeves with no space for the 3/8 line, or if i forced it it would chafe on the forestay and the sides be very unhappy in the v shaped sheeves... does anyone know a part number for the replacement rope sheeves for the main and mizzen??  or have you those of you who swapped to line halyards come up with some other solution??

thanks,
J

[p424owner]

I took one additional step - I have replaced my running backstays with low-stretch Vectran covered with heat shrink tubing...

We'll see how long it lasts!

[RayNWanda]

We are running 7/16" XLS for all 3 halyards on the main and 3/8" XLS for both halyards on the mizzen. Evidently somebody changed the sheaves at some point.

[Atavist]

Well to answer my own question I think I found the stuff... Were-steel... it's some highspeed braided line that supposedly mimicks the strength size ratios of steel... so 3/16 line is the same strengh as my original 3/16 wire .... I've replaced my main halyard with it and plan to go for a sail sunday... if it holds (which I think it will but am a bit leary about such small line) I'll replace all my other halyards with it and report back.