Halyard - soft eye v steel eye

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neil1967

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I am replacing the halyards on my 40' cruising yacht, with 12mm marlowbraid for the main, genoa (1+2) and topping lift/spare main, and 14mm marlowbraid for the spinnaker/cruising chute. What are the pros and cons of soft eye splices versus steel eye splices? The topping lift/spare main halyard will need to be able to pass through the mainsail slot. Presumably a soft eye is smaller than a steel eye. Will a steel eye last longer?

Thanks

Neil
 
Presumably you mean do you need to fit a stainless steel thimble to the eye in the braid? I think the answer is yes if you are to shackle the eye to a sail head. The hard pressure of a shackle would wear the braid quickly. If you can't fit the thimble and eye through the various slots then the thimble could be fitted once the braid is in place. That is provided the eye is near the correct size, or you could make the eye and fit the thimble after fitting the braid. good luck olewill
 
Why would the end with the eye, with or without a thimble have to pass through the slot in the mast? There must be another end!
 
NormanS said:
Why would the end with the eye, with or without a thimble have to pass through the slot in the mast? There must be another end!
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I'm wondering whether he has an in-mast furling main. In this case, if you wanted to use the topping lift as a halyard, you'd have to pass it through the slot that runs up the aft face of the mast. But on the other hand, with an in-mast main you very rarely handle the main halyard, so the odds of losing it must be very small. So I've no idea really what he's on about.

Personally I have neither a hard nor a soft eye in the end of my main halyard, but a captive shackle hitched on with a Selden "halyard knot". The topping lift just has a plain whipped end, attached to the boom with a bowline.

Pete
 
+1 for the halyard knot, easy to end for end, doesn't seem to chafe, though it's a pig to undo without pliers and a marlin spike.

Plank
 
Thanks for the replies - sorry, omitted to say it is in-mast furling, and prv has it exactly right - normally the topping lift is outside the mast, but might need to be fed inside if used as a replacement main halyard, however unlikely that may be. I'll take a look at the halyard knot.

Neil
 
neil1967 said:
Thanks for the replies - sorry, omitted to say it is in-mast furling, and prv has it exactly right - normally the topping lift is outside the mast, but might need to be fed inside if used as a replacement main halyard, however unlikely that may be.
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I'm not particularly familiar with in-mast furling, but would the arrangements at the masthead work for that? Presumably the main halyard goes over a sheave inside the mast and leads into the space for the sail, whereas the topping lift emerges from the aft side of the mast and would have to turn back on itself and probably cross from side to side as well to reach the head of the sail when hoisted. Worth considering, anyway.

Pete
 
neil1967 said:
Thanks for the replies - sorry, omitted to say it is in-mast furling, and prv has it exactly right - normally the topping lift is outside the mast, but might need to be fed inside if used as a replacement main halyard, however unlikely that may be. I'll take a look at the halyard knot.

Neil
Click to expand...

If it is Selden then your mainsail halyard will be attached with the knot, otherwise it won't fit up the slot. Not sure you can use the topping lift for the main as it exits outside the mast slot.
 
We used shackles but not thimbles and had no problems with chafe in 12,000 miles. We did get halyard chafe and to change a halyard we used a mouse line with a length twice the height of the mast. That avoids using any slots in the mast by sewing the line to the halyard at the winch end of the halyard then pulling the halyard out. Then take the mouse line off the old halyard, sew it to the new halyard and pull it the other way i.e. from the deck to the winch. We used braided rope, I wouldn't use dyneema etc because it's so thin it hurts, if you use your hands to raise the sail before using the winch or lower it to reef which we did. I've never seen any stretch in braided rope at the top of the mast because there is so little of it between the sail headboard and the sheave
 
KellysEye said:
I've never seen any stretch in braided rope at the top of the mast because there is so little of it between the sail headboard and the sheave
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Unless you have a halyard lock at the masthead, the stretch occurs in the full length of the halyard between the head of the sail and the cleat or jammer where the other end is made off.
 
KellysEye said:
I wouldn't use dyneema etc because it's so thin it hurts
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Buy thicker ones? Just because you can go thinner on some Dynema doesn't mean you have to!

As TK says, stretch is the length of the rope, not the length to the 1st block. Not sure I'd be over fussed with an in mast furling main though, as you've given up all pretense of performance anyway.... (ducks...)
 
William_H said:
Presumably you mean do you need to fit a stainless steel thimble to the eye in the braid? I think the answer is yes if you are to shackle the eye to a sail head. The hard pressure of a shackle would wear the braid quickly. If you can't fit the thimble and eye through the various slots then the thimble could be fitted once the braid is in place. That is provided the eye is near the correct size, or you could make the eye and fit the thimble after fitting the braid. good luck olewill
Click to expand...

I disagree. I have used soft eyes with snapshackles or captive pin halyard shackles on halyards for a long time and the halyard wears elsewhere long before any chafe is evident at the shackle.
 
>the stretch occurs in the full length of the halyard between the head of the sail and the cleat or jammer where the other end is made off.

In theory yes but it doesn't happen probably because the 90 degree turn at the sheave cuts the load down. As I said I have never seen it stretch, or put another way I've never had to tighten the halyard again after hoisting. Can anybody confirm that they have seen stretch?
 
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