Halyards - wire vs dyneema

Lucky Duck

Lucky Duck

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My boat came 'out of the box' with the rather traditional halyard arrangement of wire with a braid sheathing for where it goes round pulleys, through clutches, etc.

Recently I found myself paying more attention of the main and jib halyard tension, and as the boat is getting to the point where I could justify changing the running rigging - I wondered if there would benefit in swapping to dyneema instead?
 
Brent Goose said:
My boat came 'out of the box' with the rather traditional halyard arrangement of wire with a braid sheathing for where it goes round pulleys, through clutches, etc.

Recently I found myself paying more attention of the main and jib halyard tension, and as the boat is getting to the point where I could justify changing the running rigging - I wondered if there would benefit in swapping to dyneema instead?
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Massive benefits. Wire halyards are history. Dyneema is stronger, lighter, less stretchy, less lethal and nicer to work with and use. I suspect actually you'll struggle to find a rigger these days who would agree to replace wire halyards with the same.
 
Unless you are a racing fanatic you would save money by just using bog standard braided polyester. Perfectly adequate on my 33' cruiser.
 
Brent Goose said:
My boat came 'out of the box' with the rather traditional halyard arrangement of wire with a braid sheathing for where it goes round pulleys, through clutches, etc.

Recently I found myself paying more attention of the main and jib halyard tension, and as the boat is getting to the point where I could justify changing the running rigging - I wondered if there would benefit in swapping to dyneema instead?
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we were all wire with braid on braid tails.
I changed to dyneema & didnt change the sheaves, no probs after about 10 yrs
 
PetiteFleur said:
Unless you are a racing fanatic you would save money by just using bog standard braided polyester. Perfectly adequate on my 33' cruiser.
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This is not correct. I am no racer but have been using a dyneema main halyard for 10 years. There is advantage with this set up. The halyard is still in ues. They are very durable. Stretch is minimal. Tightening the main halyard when the wind picks up is a thing of the past. This stays tight. I would never go back to a stretchy main halyard. Ps. The dyneema is nice on the hands too
 
geem said:
This is not correct. I am no racer but have been using a dyneema main halyard for 10 years. There is advantage with this set up. The halyard is still in ues. They are very durable. Stretch is minimal. Tightening the main halyard when the wind picks up is a thing of the past. This stays tight. I would never go back to a stretchy main halyard. Ps. The dyneema is nice on the hands too
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Aaah but what if you just have Dacron sails, then you need to adjust the shape anyway so it is only the difference between a quarter turn and a half. I have a Dyneema main halyard which slips a wee bit in the clutch under heavy load, a wire genny halyard with a braided tail which doesn't, though I of course tighten as the wind rises and ease off all the tension before rolling the sail up, and braided polyester for the gennaker, spinnaker, pole up and down and vang, all places where a bit of stretch is good at absorbing shock loads. The only other place I have dyneema is on the genny cars and the backstay tackle which need to stay where they are set. I don't enjoy handling dyneema when winching either but then I have kept the coat on it.
Horses for courses?
 
We have a wire/braid spliced main halyard which I despise. It's stretchy, clangs against the mast in a cringe inducing, this is doing the anodising on your spar no good at all manner whilst it is set on the head of the unraised sail, kinks if you hook it under a mast cleat to hold the head of the sail down prior to hoisting and after dropping, and I wouldn't trust the splice to use it for mast climbing.

All in all, there's not a lot to like about it. I think the masthead sheave has a dual profile to accept either rope or wire, so it's soon to be replaced with the former, probably of the dyneema variety.
 
Brent Goose said:
My boat came 'out of the box' with the rather traditional halyard arrangement of wire with a braid sheathing for where it goes round pulleys, through clutches, etc.

Recently I found myself paying more attention of the main and jib halyard tension, and as the boat is getting to the point where I could justify changing the running rigging - I wondered if there would benefit in swapping to dyneema instead?
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I suspect you can probably guess what I'm going to say!

Dynema is much, much better. One benefit not mentioned is that if you have a problem you can just knife the halyard, rather than having to find the bolt croppers... Don't ask me how I know that this is a good idea...

When you make the change, even if you don't have specific wire sheaves you're likely to have some wear on them that will probably have resulted in some sharp burrs. Worth checking out, and replacing if necessary.
 
We removed all our braid-on-wire halyards last winter and replaced them with dyneema. Apart from the fact that the braid on the old halyards was, for want of a better description, knackered, we'd had more than one occasion when the wire came through to the clutch - and clutches don't grip wire.

We didn't need to replace the sheaves but we will be replacing the winch for the main halyard with a self-tailer that will properly take a 16mm line. (To do this, my winter projects include buying lottery tickets and praying that ERNIE sends me a fat cheque).
 
Quandary said:
Aaah but what if you just have Dacron sails, then you need to adjust the shape anyway so it is only the difference between a quarter turn and a half. I have a Dyneema main halyard which slips a wee bit in the clutch under heavy load, a wire genny halyard with a braided tail which doesn't, though I of course tighten as the wind rises and ease off all the tension before rolling the sail up, and braided polyester for the gennaker, spinnaker, pole up and down and vang, all places where a bit of stretch is good at absorbing shock loads. The only other place I have dyneema is on the genny cars and the backstay tackle which need to stay where they are set. I don't enjoy handling dyneema when winching either but then I have kept the coat on it.
Horses for courses?
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If you set your mainsail tension for the wind conditions as you hoist the main then you get going and the sail fills, the whole thing goes baggy then you have a stretchy halyard. Swap to Dyneema and this doesnt happen. I dont use clutches as all my reefing is at the mast.
 
My Answer would be what I did of course Jib and main Halyard Cruising Dyneema.

Rest can low stretch Braid on Braid.

A little stretch in spinnaker halyards and control ropes is not going to make much difference, but on the main and jib halyards you do tend to notice it more.
 
Wire halyards have no redeeming features. And many downsides including meathooks, which you don't get on rope.

If you do strip the cover off, don't ever let go of the working end. With a light enough shackle, it'll self sky.
 
When I swapped my single line reefing lines from polyester to spectra/dyneema and the result was excellent. The reduction in fiction and therefore ease of use was a dramatic improvement. I think it was because the lines were much smaller diameter over the pulley wheels. No stretch either. Have used the same on a main halyard many years ago and again was very pleased with the result. Disadvantage might be that you have to protect them from weather over winter and change them more often, but not sure about that.
 
geem said:
If you set your mainsail tension for the wind conditions as you hoist the main then you get going and the sail fills, the whole thing goes baggy then you have a stretchy halyard. Swap to Dyneema and this doesnt happen. I dont use clutches as all my reefing is at the mast.
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Oh Ta. Why did I never think of that?????

Seriously though, my point is that dyneema is slippery to handle and also seems to work its way through the clutch if under heavy loads but I am still content that it is probably best for some but not all applications. For instance the control line for the main traveller which I am handling all the time is a softish braid which is easy and pleasant to grip with one hand and is replaced every couple of seasons at no great cost. Much cheaper than dyneema and does that job far better. For some reason I also find it much harder to gauge the tension in dyneema halyards by looking t them or even feeling them but that is probably because most of my sailing life has been spent racing in boats with dacron sails and wire halyards with prestretched braid tails where you were adjusting sail shape almost continuously.
 
Quandary said:
Oh Ta. Why did I never think of that?????

Seriously though, my point is that dyneema is slippery to handle and also seems to work its way through the clutch if under heavy loads but I am still content that it is probably best for some but not all applications. For instance the control line for the main traveller which I am handling all the time is a softish braid which is easy and pleasant to grip with one hand and is replaced every couple of seasons at no great cost. Much cheaper than dyneema and does that job far better. For some reason I also find it much harder to gauge the tension in dyneema halyards by looking t them or even feeling them but that is probably because most of my sailing life has been spent racing in boats with dacron sails and wire halyards with prestretched braid tails where you were adjusting sail shape almost continuously.
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The Marlow Dyneema I am using is soft on the hands. I havent found it too slippery, but I dont use clutches. PS I wasnt telling you how to suck eggs! just some readers may not appreciate the benifit of the dyneema main halyard :)
 
Brent Goose said:
Thanks for all the responses, I shall aim to get these changed early next year for the start of the new season.

Will also look at getting a sheaths for where the clutches 'bite'.
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If you are not racing you might just buy dyneema-cored, with an outer braid that covers the whole rope. No need to put additional sheaths on.

For tension, it is not a bad idea to mark the halyard so you have an idea of tension.
 
Brent Goose said:
Good call. Just found this which might be the answer - http://www.marlowropes.com/leisure-marine-products-1/cruising-racing/d2-grand-prix-78.html
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For all my halyards (except for the spinnaker) I have the equivalent of Marlow's "Marlowbraid". http://www.marlowropes.com/leisure-marine-products-1/cruising-racing/marlowbraid.html This really is very low stretch.

Yes, it isn't as low stretch as dyneema (which is what my spinnaker halyard is made from), but pretty close IMHO.

I have very "unstretchy" sails - a cruising laminate - and only very rarely do I need to tighten the main halyard if I hoisted it properly in the first place. For me, this marlowbraid equivalent is good enough (and quite a bit cheaper than dyneema of a similar breaking strain).
 
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