mainsail halyard

[EASLOOP]

My East Anglian has a keel stepped mast with about 34' showing above the deckhead. She is 27' 10" LOA, 8' beam. Jimmy Green says I need very low stretch braid on braid halyard of 10mm diameter. That seems a little small to me, 12mm looks more like it. Does anyone have any advice they can send on which would be more suitable?

Thanks

 

[sailorman]

10m/m may well be strong enough but 12m/m will be nicer to handle

 

[cawarra]

Agreed. 10mm with have able breaking strain, but as sailorman says, the 12 will be easier to handle.

 

[Chris_Robb]

If you use rope clutches, then you may be restricted to 10 mm, depending on size of the clutch. 10 mm is fine for strength.

 

[EASLOOP]

Thanks everyone. 12mm it is then!

 

[sailorman]

be careful if having eyes spliced in they may not go through the top sheave.

 

[tomainsley]

on our hunter 37.5 i recently went down to a 10mm kingbraid with 2800kg breaking strain after the same deliberations. I went to 10mm to reduce friction through the blocks and make hoisting quicker/easier, 10mm and 12mm seemed as comfortable as the other. (10mm is cheaper too, although was a devil to splice).

 

[sailorman]

i prefer not to splice as i can then " end 4 end" the halliard

 

[Tranona]

12mm is OTT. No benefit of extra size on a halyard (unlike sheet where more handling required). Also unlikely sheave is big enough to take 12mm.

 

[EASLOOP]

Looks like I had better 'fondle' some samples. My halyard runs outside of the mast (I have replaced wood with an old ally one the lining of which could mistreat the rope were it inside the profile.)
Thanks again. I am favouring the 12 mm. As I say, best do some touching.

 

[sailorman]

[As I say, best do some touching]

"The Layin on of the Ans" as Kenneth Williams used to say /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif

 

[Tranona]

Even more reason to stick to 10mm. Perfectly adequate strengthwise, lower cost, less windage, less weight aloft.

 

[ditchcrawler]

I had a 12mm main halyard on my Moody 31 & changed it for a 10mm as the splice kept jamming in the sheave.The sail now falls nicely into my stackpack bag.
www.outdoorxscape.co.uk do a braid on braid which is circa 40% stronger than normal braid on braid.Cheap as well.

 

[KenMcCulloch]

[ QUOTE ]
My East Anglian has a keel stepped mast with about 34' showing above the deckhead. She is 27' 10" LOA, 8' beam. Jimmy Green says I need very low stretch braid on braid halyard of 10mm diameter. That seems a little small to me, 12mm looks more like it. Does anyone have any advice they can send on which would be more suitable?

Thanks

[/ QUOTE ]
My mast is the same height as yours, give or take a foot or two and I use 10mmfor my halyards which is completely adequate. If it's going round a winch you will get more turns on with a 10mm line than 12mm which may be much more important than any slight gripability (new word?) difference

 

[simonfraser]

you checked out the breaking strain of 12mm dyneema ??
i use 6mm on my asymetric and that will neva break. cheaper too.

 

[EASLOOP]

Thanks for the generous response to my question. I am going to give it some more serious thought. The lower price of 10mm is not to be sniffed at. But more importantly is the carrying capacity.

 

[EASLOOP]

'Carry On Touching' one might say.

/forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[William_H]

You need to remember that with a main halyard all the load of a proably 4 to 1 purchase main sheet plus a vang is going to be pulling on the halyard when close hauled. This is going to cause the rope to stretch.

I used 6mm specta halyard on my jib (a much smaller boat) and was dismayed to find that after a little sailing I needed to retension the halyard because of stretch.
So I would suggest yes 10mm rope but get the expensive spectra dyneema type rope or stick with wire/rope. olewill