DYNEEMA Halyard

PabloPicasso

PabloPicasso

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I would like to relace my (rather stretchy) main halyard with a dyneema type.

Boat is a cruiser /racer used for cruising and local around the cans racing.

Currently have a typical 10mm braided rope as a halyard.

Which brand/type should I go for to reduce stretch, be useful for everyday cruising, uv resistant etc.

There seems to be an overwhelming choice of tyoes with little clear guidance.
 
Depends how much you want to spend. This might be helpful.
Dyneema Rope - Cruising and Racing Comparison

Personally cruising dyneema is fine for me. I don't think I have the sails to warrant full dyneema anyway. Have you got a cunningham?

Someone posted a link recently of a company that sold dyneema roll ends, I'll try and find it.
 
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Our main halyard is cruising dyneema. I winch it up as tight as I can when hoisting, but if sailing to weather it soon stretches or creeps and need re-tensioning.
 
No, don't have a cunningham, which would've been useful.

How difficult is it to fit the cunningham cringle and reenforecement necessary? I dont want to rip the sail
 
We have single line reefing led back to the cockpit. It does make reefing easy.

Last week I helmed as my crew reefed and was shocked to see how much the halyard stretched as they wound in the reef.

Maybe the halyard is tired and is due for a replacement?
 
Double braid racing dyneema is what you want for halyards. The "cruising" type has a much thinner, more loosely fitting core, and is suboptimal for that. The racing stuff is not that much more expensive.

It makes a huge difference compared to any kind of polyester and you'll be very glad you did this. Sheets and outhauls also benefit enormously from converting to this.

Not only do you benefit from much less stretch (giving you much more control), but dyneema cordage is much nicer to handle, lighter, much more flexible, much easier to splice.

The brand doesn't matter much; just buy what's cheapest with the highest spec. Most of mine is Marlow, but I also have Liros, Maffioli, Gleitstein -- it's all ok.

This is some of the best money you can spend on your boat. That and good sails.

If you need to save money, you can buy good used pieces on EBay, where the racers flog their stuff, sometimes only after a season of use. I have a lovely 10mm former spinnaker sheet which I use as a jib furling line, which cost peanuts.

You can also buy offcuts -- try YouBoat in Gosport.
 
MikeBz said:
Our main halyard is cruising dyneema. I winch it up as tight as I can when hoisting, but if sailing to weather it soon stretches or creeps and need re-tensioning.
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That could be the jacket creeping around the core.

Even quite undersized dyneema doesn't really stretch much, but the problem with halyards is you stop them in clutches which grab the jacket, not the core.

This is a major advantage of "racing" dyneema, is that the core is much thicker and fits much tighter in the jacket. Hence works much better in clutches.

That's actually my main criteria for selecting double braid dyneema cordage -- does the core fit really tightly in the jacket?
 
Dockhead said:
That could be the jacket creeping around the core.

Even quite undersized dyneema doesn't really stretch much, but the problem with halyards is you stop them in clutches which grab the jacket, not the core.

This is a major advantage of "racing" dyneema, is that the core is much thicker and fits much tighter in the jacket. Hence works much better in clutches.

That's actually my main criteria for selecting double braid dyneema cordage -- does the core fit really tightly in the jacket?
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It feels pretty tight in the part of the halyard which gets used, maybe not so tight on the tail where it has never been under significant tension. It looks like either English Braids or Kingfisher cruising Dyneema. I’m sure you’re right that it’s creep. As an experiment I try not releasing it from the winch and see if it still “gives” as much.
 
Our halyards were 10mm was not unpleasant to handle in covered dyneema. We had some covered 6mm for the 3rd reef which was harsh on hands but I never had 8mm - so don't know how it feels. We used 6mm as the 3rd reef was very long, in total, bulky (single line reefing). If you are replacing the halyard I'd consider using dyneema for the reefing lines. The old halyard will be good for spinnaker sheets. You don't want dyneema for a spinnaker halyard - double braid, at that length, will stretch in a sudden gust and the spinnaker will then have a bit of give in it. I would change the headsail halyard as a soggy halyard means you don't point very well, or you need a man at the mast constantly tightening the halyard.

When we raced we had a Cunningham which led back to the cockpit (and I added a headsail Cunningham (as often in a rush to get a sail hoisted the halyard was not as tight as desired). On our cat we had no Cunningham - just the halyard back to the cockpit. I found the absence a bit odd - but lived with it.

Core slip was a big issue on the headsail halyard - the desire to point - and we always used the clutch but left the halyard on the winch (which was on the mast). The 3rd reef came back to the cockpit, along with the main halyard - you don't want to be at the mast, short handed when the weather is 3 reef weather.

Jonathan
 
Even our kite halyard is dyneema, as it doubles as the code 0 halyard. You need some luff tension on that.just to elaborate, we are going from 10mm dyneema to 8mm on our reefing lines to make them run better.
 
On my little boat 21ft I have had 6mm dyneema polyester cover for jib halyard and found it still stretches. I went then to 8mm poly covered which is better but still needs retensioning after a while.
My main halyard has always been wire with a rope tail spliced in.It needed replacement and I found splicing wire to rope just too hard. I went for 4mm dyneema no cover and spliced 10mm polyester to the tail. I have yet to prove this was a good idea. Perhaps covered dyneema would have been better than spliced. Relaunch in 4 weeks for a new season.
I love the 4mm bare dyneema that I have fitted for back stay. (fractional rig) and also for the trailer winch. A friend has used 4mm dyneema for all shrouds on his 22fter. Seems good certainly cheaper than swaged wire. ol'will
 
I find if you have to handle the line under load that 10mm is far easier on the hands than 8mm.
I would second Dockheads recommendation for full racing dyneema. Our Marlow dyneema halyard is 13 years old and has overm 40,000nm on it and it's still in perfect condition. With full batt cars, we don't need a cunningham as we get zero stretch in the dyneema and the cars don't bind so the sail hauls up tight and stays there
 
Chiara’s slave said:
Even our kite halyard is dyneema, as it doubles as the code 0 halyard. You need some luff tension on that.just to elaborate, we are going from 10mm dyneema to 8mm on our reefing lines to make them run better.
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Appreciate yours is doing double duty, but I prefer braid on braid for the (asymmetric in our case) kite halyard. When racing in heavier air the kite loads up suddenly when it fills, and the stretch in braid on braid helps take the shock load and prevents other things breaking.
 
Chiara’s slave said:
Even our kite halyard is dyneema, as it doubles as the code 0 halyard. You need some luff tension on that.just to elaborate, we are going from 10mm dyneema to 8mm on our reefing lines to make them run better.
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Like you, I've had very good experience using dyneema for a kite halyard.

I can well imagine downsizing reefing lines, but for the OP -- I would not indeed downsize the halyards. The extra strength and less stretch at a given load, will be beneficial, plus you won't need to change your clutches. Clutches for halyards don't usually work well with cordage less than the maximum size they were designed for.

I downsized my jib sheets from 16mm to 14mm when I went to dyneema, and furling lines from 12mm to 10mm, and mainsheet from 14mm to 12mm. My spin sheets and guys and preventers are all 10mm racing dyneema. These changes were all very beneficial in those applications, for the sake of handling, running through blocks, etc., but I would not downsize a halyard, which may have a tremendous amount of tension which will challenge the clutches in any case, and where every tiny increment of stretch makes a big difference. I applied the same principle to my outhaul, which i did not downsize, and to my vang.

All 5 of my halyards are 12mm racing dyneema.
 
William_H said:
On my little boat 21ft I have had 6mm dyneema polyester cover for jib halyard and found it still stretches. I went then to 8mm poly covered which is better but still needs retensioning after a while.
My main halyard has always been wire with a rope tail spliced in.It needed replacement and I found splicing wire to rope just too hard. I went for 4mm dyneema no cover and spliced 10mm polyester to the tail. I have yet to prove this was a good idea. Perhaps covered dyneema would have been better than spliced. Relaunch in 4 weeks for a new season.
I love the 4mm bare dyneema that I have fitted for back stay. (fractional rig) and also for the trailer winch. A friend has used 4mm dyneema for all shrouds on his 22fter. Seems good certainly cheaper than swaged wire. ol'will
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Uncovered dyneema spliced (it's an easy splice) to double braid could be a good solution for halyards. Or strip the cover from a longer length of double braid.

I did this for my outhaul and vang, for the sake of better running through blocks. Works great. You only need the cover for the part you actually handle or put on winches or in clutches.
 
Neeves said:
. . . we always used the clutch but left the halyard on the winch (which was on the mast). . .
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I wish I could do that! Both my mast-mounted winches (Lewmar 40's) are not self-tailing. You've given me the idea to look into converting them; thanks.
 
All of our dynema halyards have an extra cover sewn onto them where they go through the clutch. That solves the slipping issue.

 
Dockhead said:
I wish I could do that! Both my mast-mounted winches (Lewmar 40's) are not self-tailing. You've given me the idea to look into converting them; thanks.
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We have 5 winches on the mast. A lewmar 40ST dedicated to the main halyard. A Lewmar 38ST for the jib and genoa halyard, but those have a jammer each. Dedicated spinnaker winch and reefing winch. Plus a spare since both headsails now use the Lewmar 38ST winch.
The dedicated main halyard winch with Marlow racing dyneema makes adjustment super easy and no need for a jammer
 
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