wire halyard
Grumpy, I've also got a wire to rope main halyard. Before I spliced a longer rope tail onto the existing one and re-routed the halyard back thru stoppers to the cabin top winch, I would wrap whatever wire length there was at full hoist around the mast winch before cleating the rope tail to a cleat mounted lower on the mast. I assume the winch was original equipment, and it does show some grooving from the wire. But that's the way the system was designed to work, and my boat is 30 years old.
Mort, I wasn't worried about the strength of the splice when using the mast winch, since the splice was at a lower load behind the winch. The majority of the load when hoisted was on the wire at the winch itself...especially on the first wrap, judging from the obviously deepest groove. But now, the splice is just above the turning block @ the mast base at full hoist, and it IS loaded fully. I may find myself going to an all rope halyard sooner than later if it fails. The can of worms is going to be replacing the sheave at the masthead for the new rope, since it has a worn, semi-serrated surface from years of wire rolling. I'll bet it would eat a new rope halyard before you could say "Bob's your uncle!"
Dan Morehouse
1981 E-38 "Next Exit"