Running rigging questions including all rope halyards

I am about to replace the standing and running rigging on my E32-3. The boat will be used for cruising and club racing. Perhaps an offshore passage to Cuba or Key West from the St. Pete area.

I intend to go with low stretch lines for sheets and control lines. Recommendations for types of lines and sources would be appreciated. Unless I find a remarkably better deal, I will probably buy the lines from JSI in St Pete.

I am trying to get up to speed on the latest halyards. The original halyards were 3/8 braided line spliced to 3/16 wire. I have heard that the latest trend is to use a braided line and omit the wire portion. I would appreciate information on that issue.

I am not certain what sheave is at the top of my mast for the halyards. The JSI folks told me that what halyard I use is dependant upon the sheave. Some sheaves came wide enough for 3/8 line but with a smaller groove in the middle of the 3/8 groove, the smaller groove was intended for the wire.

I suppose that I could just change out the sheave, which is probably original equipment and is now 25 years old.

Any thoughts or insight would be appreciated.

Lots of good info on this site. A search for running rigging brings up a couple of threads.
http://www.ericsonyachts.org/infoexchange/showthread.php?t=2248&referrerid=28

http://www.ericsonyachts.org/infoexchange/showthread.php?t=1967&referrerid=28

Replacing old wire-to-rope halyards was indeed once a "new idea"... in the 1980's.

If you still have old wire halyards with their propensity for meat hooks, get rid of 'em. Your hands will like this upgrade. (Not that I have any opinion... !)



LB

Thanks Loren

Loren,

Thanks for your timely reply. I had searched the site but did not see the posts that you directed me to. That is exactly the kind of information that I was looking for.

Perhaps another E32-3 owner who has dealt with this issue can chime in with information about what type of sheave I can expect to fnd at my masthead and whether 3/8 rope will run through it with no issues.

halyards

I've got an '85 32-3 and have reaplced all the halyards and other running rigging. I've used sta-set and sta-setx all rope halyards. I used the existing mast head sheaves with no problems after 3 and 4 years. I don't like the sta-setx although I believe it has less stretch than the sta-set but it's not as nice to handle (IMHO) as the sta set. price for these is good, although I'm sure there are other high tech choices. I've used Rigging Only for all my lines and have had great help and pricing from them. I race my boat once and a while, mostly cruise around Lake Michagan. I've had no problems with the sheaves or does there seem to be any ill effect on my halyards. I just finished inspecting them after another season and they looked fine (had to take them down to put the boat away for the season).

My $.02

running rigging

Frank,

Thanks for that very useful information. My hull number is 561. Your boat and mine might have met at the factory.

JSI recommends Globe and Orion lines. Perhaps they recommend them because thats what they stock and sell. I will probably post a question about those lines separately in order to avoid thread creep.

I hope you are winning some of those races:nerd: I intend to race Moonshine a bit and hope that she will perform well enough that people won't point at me and laugh.

All rope

Hi there,

we replaced the halyards this year. Our rigger inspected all the sheaves and stated that they are OK to use.

We went with the combo cordage from Samson. It has a high-tech core (vectran? - but I may be wrong) and dacron (poliester) outside braid. Can't say I noticed a huge difference in performance, but yes, I can get to those last 2 inches of the mast track. Also, new ropes are way better on my hands .

But to me a selling point was that I can easily buy a rope anywhere, while a wire-to-rope splice is a major PITA.

Regards,
Stan

E32-3 #668

I've been on the verge of replacing my halyards also. What diameter line did y'all use for the halyards?

I can't decide on all rope or stay with the wire/ rope combo.


Thanks,

Halyards

I used 7/16ths and 3/8's, the bigger the line the easier on the hands, the smaller the lighter etc. To me, and I'm not a real serious racer, but I singlehand a lot so line handling is important to me. I've also replaced all the rope clutchs with lewmars (again from Rigging Only) and think this was a great upgrade. I would not go back to rope to wire, to many meathooks, and too much banging around. As I mentioned earlier I've not had issue with rop e only and the sheaves.
If your halyards are lead aft I'd also suggest replacing all the original blocks with ball bearing blocks, along with the deck organizers, or replace the sheaves in the organizers with ball bearing sheaves, all of this reduces the effort required to operate the halyards and mainsheet. I did not increase the purchase on my main sheet as has been described in other threads. Adding self tailing winches on the cabin top (my 32 did not have them) has also helped with single handing.

Again my $.02 given freely and that's probably about what it's worth

Sea Rouge - I'm going to be in Naples for Turkey Day, I think you're further north?

Ditto to what Frank says...

So that we do not have to replace the whole set of deck hardware, we went with 3/8.

Treasure Island

Frank,

I am quite a bit north of Naples. Treasure Island is one of the barrier islands west of St Petersburg. It is probably 3 or 4 hours north of Naples. I will be in Charleston over Thanksgiving in any case.

If you find yourself in the Treasure Island area at any time, give me a shout.

Tony

Several years ago I went with the following http://www.defender.com/product.jsp?path=-1|118|311417|314170|749713&id=111371 Warpspeed.

It has worked well.
I still have issues of Rope clutches holding

The art of the deal, maybe

One other point to keep in mind in these recessionary times is that most vendors are a little more willing to negotiate now. If you are replacing several halyards at once and shopping for line in the $2.+ per foot category (and each new halyard is a little over 100' long), don't be shy about asking for a break. Be nice about it, of course. As a successful business friend of mine used to say, "If you don't ask you don't get!"

Back when the world was still cooling, I and four other small boat owners once got a great deal on a 600' spool of premium anchor line by approaching a vendor this way.

LB