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Halyard Shackle Knot questions

Loren Beach

O34 - Portland, OR
Senior Moderator
Blogs Author
I have gotten along fine with "anchor bend" knots to hold our hi-tech halyards to their snap shackles for over a decade. This week I started the little project of bringing the halyards down one at a time to run them gently through the wash.
(Cold water, mild soap, thorough rinse, and air drying...)

In looking around the 'net for other knots for this and just for confirmation, if nothing else... I found the sequence shown here.
Looks to be about as "easy" on the sharp bend in the line as the present idea, but has one turn around the bale rather than the two that the Anchor Hitch uses.
This looks a bit better to my untrained eye. Although i'm not sure why - just tidier, I guess.

Any thoughts?

I like any hitch that gives a firm non-jamming stop when the halyard is fully hoisted. Splices are not good for this stuff as the "bury" part with the fat section can jam in the sheave at the top of the mast under enough winching effort.

BTW, the "breaking strength" of any of these halyards is way beyond any concern about a knot "reducing the strength by XX %". At least IMHO.

Here's another site, with a similar knot.
http://www.animatedknots.com/halyard/index.php?LogoImage=LogoGrog.jpg&Website=www.animatedknots.com

Thanks, as always,
Loren
 

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u079721

Contributing Partner
Well of course I can't find the reference just now, but I've read in a couple of different places that an ideal knot for any halyard shackle is a buntline hitch. Very secure, and very compact so it can get close to the sheave. I have trusted it with my life many times as it is the knot I always used when going aloft.
 

Loren Beach

O34 - Portland, OR
Senior Moderator
Blogs Author
Buntline Hitch

Well of course I can't find the reference just now, but I've read in a couple of different places that an ideal knot for any halyard shackle is a buntline hitch. Very secure, and very compact so it can get close to the sheave. I have trusted it with my life many times as it is the knot I always used when going aloft.

You're right Steve.
Here is a link to an animation for it.
http://www.netknots.com/rope_knots/buntline-hitch

This would also do the job.

Best,
Loren

ps: link for the Anchor Hitch.
http://www.animatedknots.com/anchor...ge=LogoGrog.jpg&Website=www.animatedknots.com
 
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Loren Beach

O34 - Portland, OR
Senior Moderator
Blogs Author
halyard ready to feed.jpgStitched about 7 times.jpgclean w:new knot.jpgHalyard with tag line photos.

I used about 6 to 8 links of seizing line stitched back and forth between the end of the tag line and the halyard with a sailmaker's needle.
Added a layer of tape to smooth the trip over the sheave at the mast head. No problems.

In a perfect world I would have seized "luggage tags" into the end of each new halyard when I bought them, and this process would go even faster. Oh well.

Anyhow, bit of closure for this little thread.
Best,
Loren
 
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Loren Beach

O34 - Portland, OR
Senior Moderator
Blogs Author
Main halyard stitched to the tag line and installed today.
I did use the simpler Buntline Hitch and end-for-ended the line.

At present the jib sheets and the foreguy are air drying after a cold water soak and rinse and a spin in the washer.

A quick check on current 'net prices shows that 5/16" T-900 is selling for around $2./foot, more or less.
Good Heavens!

With four masthead halyards on our boat measuring about 90' to 100' plus, each, I need to take even better care of these!
:0

OTOH, at well over a decade, they seem to be in great shape and hopefully will last well beyond our ownership of the boat.

Loren
 
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Loren Beach

O34 - Portland, OR
Senior Moderator
Blogs Author
Cleanliness is next to Halyard-ness

Time flies, and a cleanup was due again.
:rolleyes:
In April I again took all four halyards down one at a time and cold-water-washed them. We have a gentle front loader washing machine, and I "chain hitched" each one and placed it in a large mesh bag for the wash cycle, with an extra cold water rinse cycle added.

Also did the pole lift line. This time we even took the reefing lines out of the boom, one by one.

Due to a splice in one end, the vang line was done in a bucket on board and draped over the boom to drain. Ditto the outhaul line tail.

None will ever completely look "like new" again but they do look and handle a LOT better. :)
Several years of mold, dirt, and exhaust from being under the final approach of PDX really made the exposed parts 'crusty'.
 

bgary

Advanced Beginner
Blogs Author
Time flies, and a cleanup was due again.

Nice.

Last spring I spent hooouuuurrrsssss cleaning green grunge off the parts of my halyards that were exposed over the winter. Plus lines of black grunge where the lines had run along the deck.

I splurged last fall in some line sail, and bought 400 feet of 3/16" yacht braid for such-a-deal. Cut it into 100-foot lengths, pseudo-spliced a reeving loop into one end of each piece and, voila, winter halyards. takes just a couple of minutes to pull each halyard when the rains start, and just a few minutes to re-run each one at the beginning of the sunny season. Much less work, and hopefully my halyards will stay nicer, longer.
 

alcodiesel

Bill McLean
Loren, I concur: "BTW, the "breaking strength" of any of these halyards is way beyond any concern about a knot "reducing the strength by XX %". At least IMHO."

I just started using a buntline on the halyards last week. Strong and compact. I like it.
 

steven

Sustaining Member
At M.I.T the sailing team ties halyards with a "stunsail tack bend".
(which also goes under other names)
http://sailing.mit.edu/videos/knots-stunsail.php

It can be tied very fast without looking. Stays tight.
And comes apart on demand (relatively) easily when very tight and and possibly wet with ice cold water.
(to loosen the knot, the two coils around the standing end can be broken apart where the free end passes between them)


stunsail tackbend.png


--Steve
 
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