Had any sheets / halyards etc break in normal use?

horatio_nelson said:
Perhaps, like serious rock climbers, we should keep logs of the use of our lines - I guess if your life depended on that rope, you'd want to know this stuff.
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Or at least inspect the whole length of the lineregularly. Pull the halyards so you can inspect it the hole length.
All my line have reeving eyes it just to attach the reeving line an pull the halyard out for washing and/or inspection.
 
Nope, never happened on any boat, mine or others, large or small. Maybe I'm just lucky, but I do keep my rigging (standing & running) for a long time. I also check it in use & occasionally as part of the winter checks.
 
Searush said:
Nope, never happened on any boat, mine or others, large or small. Maybe I'm just lucky, but I do keep my rigging (standing & running) for a long time. I also check it in use & occasionally as part of the winter checks.
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All the lines I've seen go have been for reasons other than simply the rope being taken to beyond its breaking strain. Chafe is the main culprit and a well found boat should have very little if any of that.
 
In over 10,000 miles we had no sheet or halyard break although we carried for spares for both. We did notice some chafe on the main halyard on an Atlantic passage but didn't replace it just sewed some leather on the chafe, it worked fine.
 
I had the furling line part. Of course it parted when the headsail was reefed and suddenly I had an unreefed sail in winds that had made me reef in the first place. It was a big bang! A bit of a challenge to sort out so that I could reef again and fully

I was watching the Volvo Ocean Race videos with the crew man hoisted aloft on a single halyard. Then a separate video with one of the halyards parted company. Whenever I go aloft, I use the spinnaker halyard tied and not clipped to the bosuns chair, but I also have the pole up as a safety. Am I being too cautious???

TudorSailor
 
tudorsailor said:
I was watching the Volvo Ocean Race videos with the crew man hoisted aloft on a single halyard. Then a separate video with one of the halyards parted company. Whenever I go aloft, I use the spinnaker halyard tied and not clipped to the bosuns chair, but I also have the pole up as a safety. Am I being too cautious???
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No, it's good practice to use two halyards :)
 
Hambler Rambler said:
Quite! Only issue on a fractional rig is that the main halyard might be the only one which goes all the way to the masthead. Not the case with VOR boats though I think
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The problem with the VOR could be halyards already in use for sails.. (assuming they where sailing)

Would expect most boats to have a main halyard and main topping lift.
My topping lift is not in use so I have replaced it by a thin covered Dyneema line - if needed I would pull in my spare halyard.
But my boat is masthead so I have two spinn halyards and to headsail halyards at the top.

If only one masthead halyard free on a fractional rig, one could use a head sail halyard for the first bit and the use a safety line tied on to the rig/mast for the last bit.
 
I am amazed that people have had ropes snap in one go - I have never seen that, other than light string seriously abused.

Quite common to have chafe damage, or UV damage, which causes the outer cover to part - but in my experience the inner core should be suffient to hold the weight until pressure taken off and the rope replaced, unless the rope seriously under sized.
Damaged and therefore sharp halyard sheaves at the masthead can certainly cut through all layers of a halyard - and ignoring a damaged rope outer cover for a period could cause inner failure. But both sound a bit like neglect.
 
I was crewing on a 52' performance cruiser multi, screecher halyard, dyneema, stripped its outer sheath through being chewed by the jammer (on mast). The Dyneema than slipped. It was impossible to refurl the sail and we had to pull the whole things down and fold on the deck. Someone earlier posted the same issue. The halyard should have been left taut on the winch, this would have ensured the jammer was not taking all the load. On our cat we end for ended the screecher halyard and it gave a life of about 12 years and around 30,000nm - we have just replaced it with a new halyard. its apparently a common issue on multis.

We used to chew out covers on Dyneema sheets on long races on life lines but never sufficient to eat through the core, the sheets were either retired, end for ended or cut down from genoa sheets so they could become jib sheets. Never had one snap.

We have had 2 (anchor) snubbers fail, 12mm 3 stand nylon - you cannot miss them going, sounds like gunfire. Ours have a life of about 2 years, or 8,000nm (not sure how many days at anchor, maybe 300 days). We are now using 11mm climbing rope. We do size them to be consumables and carry spares.

I suspect that most cordage (apart from snubbers) is over specified and if you buy quality product, check and make remedial changes when the cover looks suspect then it is a very rare event. Serious racing yachts where weight is pared to a minimum might be a different ball park.

Jonathan
 
Kevlar main halyard, presumably fatigue fractured after 5 years. Replaced (in 1994) by a Dyneema 12mm line of which the first lasted 15 years (replaced for chafe) and the current one is due for its 1st end-for-end.
Spinnaker halyard, 12mm braid on braid, broke just by the retainer ring and dumped the spinnaker under the boat. That happened in 1991 and was replaced by a 10mm dyneema which is still going strong.
I've gradually replaced all my halyards and mainsheet with 10mm dyneema - use braid on braid polyester on all sheets, usually 12mm but for spinnaker 10mm.
With the exception of Kevlar, which probably needs maintenance changing every 3rd year, all the others have given ample warning by showing chafe marks.
 
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