Halyard size

[Stephen Brady]

I've found the Factory rigging .PDF and wondering if everyone is still using 1/2' for all Halyards? I'm thinkin of dropping down to 7/16" any thoughts. I've also thought of upping the Staysail outhaul and reffing line to 3/8" instead of the listed 5/16"

 

 

Stephen

CR 38

S/V New Wind

[curtis hoffman]

Had some work done join my boat by my local rigger last season and he recommended 7/16” Halyards for my 42. I did it! 

Paul
      

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[Jakesamberg]

The natal clutches that were on our mast for the main and staysail halyard were good up to 1/2 but they were getting tired so I replaced them with two separate ones. I kept the clutch and the line for the staysail at 1/2 and upped the clutch and Maine halyard to 5/8. I don't think I would go smaller than 1/2. More than anything you might find it harder to haul on as the line gets smaller. 

It's likely plenty strong however.

Sent from my iPad

On May 17, 2015, at 9:45 AM, Stephen Brady <stpa...@gmail.com> wrote:

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[Alex Tarlecky]

I think that would be a bad idea unless you were also moving up to a higher tech or more modern rope. This is an offshore boat and its been my experience that you don't want to be in the *hit and wondering "did I get big enough lines?". Its just not something I want to guess at.

With that said, I'm making a complete backup set of halyards and they will be 7/16" for storage reasons.

- alex

[curtis hoffman]

I asked my rigger guy how he threads 7/16" rope down the inside of my mast. Got a very clever answer . He drops a long length of ball chain like used on key chains etc. when the chain gets blocked by something it piles up until it becomes top heavy. Then run over until the next obstruction . Very inventive. Love it!

Sent from my iPhone

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[Patrick Dayshaw]

I reduced the size of mine from 1/2" to 7/16" before our Pacific cruise.
3 years and 23,000 miles later I have no regrets. All the halyards are
still in great shape after that trip and that included 8,500 miles of
mostly upwind passages from New Zealand to Sitka, Alaska. Only issue I
had was with one of my spinnaker halyards that developed a slight chafe
issue but that was do to a problem with the masthead block. Changed that
block out in NZ and had no further problems.

Patrick

S/V Silhouette
CR38, #43

[N C]

Stephen,

I wouldn't hesitate dropping down to 7/16" line. The halyards for the main and headsails really don't sustain as much of a load as you would think. Once the wind loads up the sail, the slugs in the sail track, or slot for the bolt rope in the case of furlers, are carrying most of the load along with the sheets. It's lateral pressure on the sail not vertical load on the halyards. It's one of the reasons you have difficulty raising the main if you're not dead into the wind. 

Additionally, the materials, coatings, abrasion resistance, construction process etc., of the lines manufactured today are substantially better than those of years past. I would venture to guess that the 1/2" lines used on sail boats in the 70's, 80's and even into the 90's weren't much stronger, if at all, than today's 7/16" high tech lines.

 If you think about the running rigging on most boats, it's continually subjected to ultraviolet degradation, abrasive salt intrusion etc. and in typical sailor fashion we try to keep them in service for as long as possible. What's the tensile strength of one of those lines? Very rarely do you hear of well maintained lines failing, more often then not the sail will blow out first, a shackle will dislodge etc..

Manufactures also have a safety margin factored into or above what the rated tensile strength is. With a thinner line you'll also get a bit less friction if you have multiple changes of direction and less bulk.

As Paul mentioned, even his rigger wouldn't hesitate.

Cheers,

Nick

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[Percival W Herman]

Out of curiosity, does anyone know where I could locate the referenced rigging PDF?  Though in good condition, most of the halyards and sheets on our boat are 5/8" and some of the shackles are tied and not spliced to their halyards.  As if I needed another, I thought a good winter project would be to downsize and do some splicing.  The hitch is that the boat (CR38) is over 1,400 miles away so getting some of the measurements I need is problematic. Thanks! 

[Alex Tarlecky]

Se attached for running rigging sizes.

[Percival W Herman]

Excellent! Thank you!

[Stephen Brady]

Alex's PDF is the exact one I have....Thanks for posting Alex.
Do we have someplace to keep all these goodies?

On Sunday, May 17, 2015 at 9:45:19 AM UTC-4, Stephen Brady wrote:

[Alex Tarlecky]

The facebook page has a lot of these items and has the advantage of being searchable.