halyard size - 30 footer

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niccapotamus

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our current (worn) halyard is 12mm.

wondering about buying dyneema or cruising dyneema to slightly reduce friction

any ideas about the diameter for the higher spec stuff?

ta
 
The general rule of thumb is to go down one size if replacing polyester with Dyneema, but 10mm is still pretty hefty for a 30 ft boat.
You could prob go down to 8mm, but you may feel handling characteristics become important. I had all my halyards on a Parker 275 replaced with 8mm Dyneema and the reef lines in 6mm.
My SO36i has 10mm halyards& 8mm reef lines, all in Dyneema. I tend to go with the smallest line that will do the job where I can so my sheets are converted from one of the redundant halyards and are 10mm hard polyester, probably much thinner than most people would use, but more than adequate.
 
Looking at the guide on Jimmy Green's website (which unfortunately only specs for polyester) they suggest you should be in the 8-10mm range at 30ft LOA. If you're going to Dyneema or similar, you should be able to go down two sizes, but 6mm to hoist the main? I think it would be like cheesewire - carefully count the fingers! The other consideration is whether any clutches will successfully hold the smaller rope, especially as the new compounds are said to be rather slippery... All told these constraints will probably point you at 8mm Dyneema.

Rob.
 
My Centurion 32 had a main halyard that was half 6mm stainless steel cable, half 12mm polyester. I replaced it with Liros Regatta 2000. I opted for 8mm instead of the more costly 10mm stuff because its strength is 3800 daN compared to 5000 daN for the 10mm size. Handling is not really a problem because all you need to do is to wind three or four turns on the winch drum. Elongation is practically non-existent. 28 metres of it cost me €109 (after discount). The only difference is that it is somewhat stiff when compared to polyester but then so was the previous wire.
 
I bought halyards for my new mast (2011) assuming I'd want a bit bigger than some of the others, so went with 12mm only to find that it was too big for the sheaves... and I had to panic buy 10mm
 
my 31 ft boat has a fairly large main & i use 8mm dynema. With a SWL of 4.5 tonnes it will lift the entire boat on its own
Of course strength is reduced with knots splices etc but still ample SWL
one point to note that some halliards wear at the head of the sail where it runs over the sheave etc.
My jib halliard goes through an aligner to the furler & started to wear. Because it was 8mm i was able to use the outer sheave of a 10mm braid as a wear cover.
The alternative would be to get a slightly longer halliard & cut a bit off every season
Fortunately my jammer works OK on 8mm but it is a point to consider. New innards can be bought for some spinlock jammers to prevent slippage
I do have laminate sails so there is not a lot of give at the jammer so it does want to slip sometimes
 
As others have said you will need to size based on handling characteristics rather than strength. I did the same thing and went for 10mm as minimum size that is comfortable. They will all be strong enough.
 
Agree 12mm is too big. 10mm braid would be fine. 8mm Dyneema is more than 3 times the price and not sure what you will gain spending that amount of money on a cruising boat. I know the theoretical advantages - just struggle with the performance gains for that expenditure.
 
We have 8mm on our 33-footer, with a 32sqm main and a 30sqm Genoa. If you can go down in diameter also depends on your stoppers/clutches, if they can hold the smaller line.
 
I have had spectra jib halyard for some years with hanked on jibs (smallish for a 21ft fractional rig). I started with 6mm spectra and found that it stretched enough to be annoying when racing. (dropping jib for spin runs so raising jib 3 or 4 times in an afternoon. I then went to 8mm spectra which is far better in stretch but not perfect. (compared to wire and rope tail) I still use wire and rope tail for the main and will I suppose have to go for spectra when that wears. You have to remember that in the case of the main you have the main sheet pulling on the halyard and for the jib the jib sheet on a winch pulling on the halyard so it gets a lot of load on it. good luck olewill
 
I have 10mm halyards. 43' boat, 56 square meter main, 36 sq m jib & a masthead kite. No doubt Jimmy Green would love me to buy 14 or 16mm halyards, that's how they make their money after all, but I've got enough nous to realise that if the lines are too big for the blocks I'll get excessive friction and I'll just make it hard work for myself.

Even something like a Spinlock XTS is rated for lines down to 8mm, and I doubt the OP has clutches that big.

It would be handy for the OP to look at nearby race boats (of similar sail area not length) to see what size dyneema halyards they use.
 
Slight thread drift, but reasonably relevant. Dyneema halyards have a maximum 2% stretch. Over 15m (4m deck and 11m of mast) this is 30cm of stretch. Can anything be done about this?
 
RobF said:
Slight thread drift, but reasonably relevant. Dyneema halyards have a maximum 2% stretch. Over 15m (4m deck and 11m of mast) this is 30cm of stretch. Can anything be done about this?
Click to expand...

You do not load the dynema to its max. The 2% stretch is near breaking load i suspect. You certainly get a lot more with just braid on braid as I found out when i upgraded my main to a Hyde & noticed creases coming and going as the boat went over waves & the halliard kept stretching. On my old main i could not see it.
Does not happen when i changed from 10mm braid to 8mm dynema
 
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