Halyards

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Halyards

Postby rnlivingston » Mon May 02, 2011 7:58 am

My DS 1 came with a proctor tapered mast with internal halyards. I want to replace them and I am looking for sugestions for size and type of line. They look to be only 1/4 inch in diameter.

Roger Livingston
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Postby jdoorly » Mon May 02, 2011 7:53 pm

My ds2 came with a 5/16" 3 strand rope spliced to a wire on the main halyard, and a 5/16" double braid on the jib halyard. I replaced the main halyard with 1/4" double braid, kept the jib halyard, and added a spinnaker halyard of 1/4" double braid. The rope-wire main was less windage, while the 5/16" rope has better 'hand', but the 1/4" is cheapest.
DS2 #6408 "Desperado"
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Postby jw » Mon May 02, 2011 8:02 pm

Did you use anything high-tech, or just some pre-stretch?
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Postby itsermam » Mon May 02, 2011 10:55 pm

My DS I came with double braid spliced to cable halyards for both main and jib, which were in rough shape. I replaced with New England ropes 5mm Finish Line from IntensitySails.com and have been very happy with the result.
DS I #3056
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Postby Mike Gillum » Thu May 19, 2011 12:25 am

Main Halyard on #2772 is 1/8" Spectra for just shy of half of the halyard and then the remainder covered with 3/16" polyester braid cover to aid in hoisting the Main and cleating in the jaws of the C211Mk2 aluminum Clam Cleat.
The Main Halyard needs to have little or no stretch and 1/8" Spectra or Vectran are both very light and super strong.
Neat cheap trick for the Main Halyard is to use a colored Stopper Ball with a knot in the Spectra/Vectran in place of the standard SS Shackle by forming a loop in the halyard passing it through the Headboard, then pass the Stopper Ball through the loop, and pull snug.
Jib & Spinnaker Halyards are 5/32" Super Pre-Stretch by Marlow with the Jib Halyard cleating in the jaws of the C211Mk2 aluminum Clam Cleat while the Spinnaker Halyard cleats in a Harken HK468 Cam Cleat.
The Jib and Spinnaker Halyards can have a little stretch to them so the Super Pre-Stretch fills that bill inexpensively.
Tie bowlines in both halyards to secure to head of the Jib and Spinnaker to the Halyard.
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Postby K.C. Walker » Sat May 21, 2011 11:44 am

Well Mike, you've done it again. Your trick with the stopper ball is great! I need to replace the Main halyard on my boat and was contemplating what to use. It seems like using a shackle makes it tough to get a full hoist but this should do the trick nicely and using small line.

Your description of your setup and the cleats you use had me at APS searching right away. I still need to get rid of the horn cleats. Do you find the clam cleats run free when dousing?
KC Walker, DS 1 #7002
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Postby Mike Gillum » Sat May 21, 2011 12:05 pm

KC, The cleats for main & jib halyard are so good that you either have to hold them up out of the cleat or throw the halyard tail forward so it turns 180 degrees.
The ball allows for maximum hoists so beware that you can hoist past the black band at the top of the mast so a black magic marker mark on the halyard at the cleat at full hoist is critical if you're racing to avoid being protested by a fellow competitor.
Nice part is that the newer composite ropes are becoming cheaper, they're lighter & stronger, don't have "meat-hooks", and they don't mar your mast like the old wire/rope halyards of old.
Downside is that the composites like Spectra/Vectran are very sensitive to UV exposure so if you store your Daysailer outdoors make sure to tie a messenger line to the ball and hoist the halyard into the mast to protect it.
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