Help with sail rope diameter leisure 17

[Benjibob22]

I’m struggling to find any information on the standard diameter of the ropes for the leisure 17, could anyone help me out? What’s the minimum diameter I need? Thanks..

 

[PeterV]

Don’t go too thick. Anything about 4mm or above is strong enough to take the loads, but 8 or 10mm is much kinder to your hands for sheets and halyards so go to your chandlery and see what you think. other lines can be 6 or 8 m

 

[wallacebob]

Unfortunately “ropes” is a bit too vague to answer. Best to join LOA, and ask specific questions on their forum

 

[Praxinoscope]

From memory of when we had a Leisure 17 about 50 years ago, the main and jib sheets were 8 mm, halyards were I think 6 mm, but tis is entirely from memory, so I could be wrong.
Hope you enjoy sailing one of these great little boats.

 

[peteK]

6mm for the halyards.

 

[Benjibob22]

Thanks guys, I’m currently sorting out my Genoa track, it came with a steel ring and the rope/halyard just slid through, I want to put a pulley on it, I’m replacing the old version with harken rail and I’ve made my own sliders lol, to buy them would have cost me more than I paid for the boat ?, I got the rail for free from work, so for the Genoa/jib and Mainsheet a 6-8mm line and pulleys would suffice? Thanks again

 

[Tranona]

8mm - 6 would be too small from the handling point of view. If you have not bought the rope yet then look here at reel ends marinescene.co.uk/en/category/category-8mm

 

[Praxinoscope]

As Tranona says in #7 6mm is too small for sheets, it isn’t easy to handle, 8mm would be fine, réel ends are a very useful option, colours my be limited but price wise certainly worth it.

 

[peteK]

All rope comes off the end of the reel,just a sales ploy.

 

[Tranona]

All rope comes off the end of the reel,just a sales ploy.

But if you look it is almost half the price of buying by the metre. I got 3 new 10mm halyards for around £35 each that would have been closer to £60 in the local chandlers. Of course you have to take the lengths on offer but never found this a problem.

Would not have suggested it to the OP if there were not significant savings for him. For example 44metres of 8mm for £31.43 (retail £1.40m), enough to do both jib sheets and mainsheet

 

[William_H]

Thanks guys, I’m currently sorting out my Genoa track, it came with a steel ring and the rope/halyard just slid through, I want to put a pulley on it, I’m replacing the old version with harken rail and I’ve made my own sliders lol, to buy them would have cost me more than I paid for the boat ?, I got the rail for free from work, so for the Genoa/jib and Mainsheet a 6-8mm line and pulleys would suffice? Thanks again

If you have winches for the jib sheets you may find that the ring for turning the jib sheet is necessary to ensure the sheet arrives at the winch from below. So If you fit a sheeve pulley your sheet may arrive too high on the winch causing over rides. The only option then is to raise the winches on blocks.
Go 10mm for jib sheets and main sheet to be kind to your hands. I found on 21fter that I needed dyneema for jib and main halyard because polyester stretches.
There are other ways to set up the turn point for jib sheets in lieu of track and slider. If you use hank on jibs you might just determine a good location for ring or pulley for each jib or use barber hauler system to give remote adjustment. Barber hauler has the jib sheeting ring well back fixed. Another ring (jib sheet goes through it) is on top of a line which comes from a ring on deck well forward but then goes back to cockpit cleat. So tightening or loosening the barber hauler line adjust the angle of the jib sheet.
On big 100 ft ocean racers they use this system but the deck ring for barber hauler is on a sideways track enabling jib sheet point to be inboard for beating and outboard for reaching. All to get that perfect jib shape.
ol'will