Nope. Pretty common, I think.
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E 32-3 Headsail Halyard
- Thread starter Eric B
- Start date
Nope. Pretty common, I think.
Hello, Old Salt Joseph.
The current rope/wire halyard looks pretty well aged, though not too bad. It does have a few permanent bends and curves in the wire, especially in the last several feet where it leads to the furling unit (at the head of the sail). I believe these bends, however they originally occurred, keep contributing to the halyard occasionally wrapping around the headstay in such a way that the furling unit (the aluminum extrusion) cannot turn, in either direction. By the way, I have yet to experience having a good time when this event occurs.. :0
Installing the halyard restrainer may well cure the problem completely, without getting a new halyard, but it seems like a new halyard is about due anyway.
As is frequently the case, some good reasons to stay with the original, and some good reasons to change...
Thanks,
Eric
Nope. Pretty common, I think.
aaahhhh, thanks bgary! nice shot..
And thanks for your other input re the lines you are using.
By the way, nice to see that Thelonious (Makana) has found a good new home!
As we all know, Christian has done some great projects on that boat, including sailing her all the way out here to Hawaii and back..
Eric
We had to install one soon after putting on the Harken furler in the mid 90's. Like others, we started having a problem with halyard wraps -- the angle of the forestay to the mast is pretty narrow on our rig.
Loren
Splices matter
That picture of your feet in the other thread reminded me that there is another aspect to choosing "the right line" for your halyard.
Traditional/old-school double-braid, such as Samson XLS, can be spliced with a full buried crossover. the core is buried in the cover, the cover is buried in the core, and then the place where they cross over is buried in the throat of the splice. The strength of this type of splice is very close to (~90%) of the strength of the line itself.
Newer styles of line may be... more complicated.
Lines called "core-dependent double-braids" (typically a dyneema- or technora-cored line with a polyster cover, such as Samson MLX) have to be spliced differently. In what Samson calls a "Class-II" splice, the core (which provides the majority of the strength) is buried, and the cover is essentially trimmed off. In this kind of splice, the cover doesn't add much structurally, and the splice *must* be lock-stitched and siezed to maintain its integrity.
,,,and then the most high-tech/low-stretch lines, such as Samson Control-DPX, are effectively 12-strand single-braids, made just like that cheap yellow stuff that floats, only much much stronger. There *is* no core, just a single braid. So splicing it is simply a matter of tapering one end and burying it into the standing part. As above, the splice *must* be lock-stitched and siezed to achieve full strength/integrity.
Another way to splice single-braid is with what is called a "locked brummel" splice - where you push the tail through the standing part, and then push the standing part through the tail, and achieve a "double crossover" without any bury. It's strong when done right, in fact it is the way a lot of soft-shackles are constructed, I just don't love this approach for a halyard. Not sure why.
Why does any of this matter? It may not... except on halyards that your life might depend upon if you are using them to go to the top of the mast.
Maybe it is just me, but I "trust" the double-braid, full-buried crossover type of splice *far* more than I trust a simple lock-stitched core bury. I've never seen one come apart and the way it is designed (where the core and the cover pull into each other, tightening the splice under load) gives me reason to believe it "can't" come apart. I don't have that same feeling with a simple core-bury.
Something to consider when deciding what kind of line to use for your next halyard.
$.02
That picture of your feet in the other thread reminded me that there is another aspect to choosing "the right line" for your halyard.
Traditional/old-school double-braid, such as Samson XLS, can be spliced with a full buried crossover. the core is buried in the cover, the cover is buried in the core, and then the place where they cross over is buried in the throat of the splice. The strength of this type of splice is very close to (~90%) of the strength of the line itself.
Newer styles of line may be... more complicated.
Lines called "core-dependent double-braids" (typically a dyneema- or technora-cored line with a polyster cover, such as Samson MLX) have to be spliced differently. In what Samson calls a "Class-II" splice, the core (which provides the majority of the strength) is buried, and the cover is essentially trimmed off. In this kind of splice, the cover doesn't add much structurally, and the splice *must* be lock-stitched and siezed to maintain its integrity.
,,,and then the most high-tech/low-stretch lines, such as Samson Control-DPX, are effectively 12-strand single-braids, made just like that cheap yellow stuff that floats, only much much stronger. There *is* no core, just a single braid. So splicing it is simply a matter of tapering one end and burying it into the standing part. As above, the splice *must* be lock-stitched and siezed to achieve full strength/integrity.
Another way to splice single-braid is with what is called a "locked brummel" splice - where you push the tail through the standing part, and then push the standing part through the tail, and achieve a "double crossover" without any bury. It's strong when done right, in fact it is the way a lot of soft-shackles are constructed, I just don't love this approach for a halyard. Not sure why.
Why does any of this matter? It may not... except on halyards that your life might depend upon if you are using them to go to the top of the mast.
Maybe it is just me, but I "trust" the double-braid, full-buried crossover type of splice *far* more than I trust a simple lock-stitched core bury. I've never seen one come apart and the way it is designed (where the core and the cover pull into each other, tightening the splice under load) gives me reason to believe it "can't" come apart. I don't have that same feeling with a simple core-bury.
Something to consider when deciding what kind of line to use for your next halyard.
$.02
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splice - locked brummel.jpg
GrandpaSteve
Sustaining Member
Chiming in late here, but I replaced all 3 wire to rope halyards with New England ropes VPC, and it requires a core-dependent splice, so my rigger spliced the halyards.